Corporate governance

Level One Bank in Farmington, Mich., has hired a team of mortgage bankers from MB Financial, which previously announced it was shutting down this business line.

Banks could shed as much as 20 million square feet of office space over the next five years as they shift many functions to high-tech operations centers in markets with cheaper rents.

The deal is designed to improve capital ratios and reduce risk at the Seattle company.

Ruoff Financial will make its first push into banking with the purchase of SBB Bancshares.

The Seattle company is firing 127 people, or a tenth of its mortgage staff, after enduring months of slow activity.

Remax Holdings is focused on "what it does best" with its Motto Mortgage business and in facing off against Zillow's new home buying and selling initiative, a company executive said.

Sonoma County supervisors have signed off on a wide-ranging suite of policy changes intended to encourage construction of more new homes seven months after nearly 5,300 residences were lost here in last year's devastating wildfires.

Costs rose at the global bank, profit in North America fell 16% and questions are mounting for new CEO John Flint ahead of the release of his strategic plan.

The group says Mulvaney, who also runs OMB, was not totally forthcoming with the Senate Budget Committee about the foreclosure of a property he owns in South Carolina.

Mortgage and title insurance companies licensed in New York need to file disaster response plans this year in line with increased state attention to business continuity planning.