Finance

The overseer of the Federal Home Loan Banks is planning changes to membership rules that would keep investment firms and lenders lacking customer deposits out of the U.S. government-chartered system.

Six years after Angelo Mozilo lost control of the largest mortgage lender in the U.S., and days after news that the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles plans to sue him, the Countrywide Financial Corp. founder is baffled by a new effort to punish him, proud of past triumphs and incensed by criticism.

Redwood Trust and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago are revving up a program to buy and securitize jumbo loans and looking for signs that other FHLBs will participate.

Such a system will not erase past violations, but it can help convince a regulator that a lender is invested in doing business the "right way."

The Justice Department's recent $16.6 billion deal with Bank of America over crisis-era mortgage fraud has raised fresh questions over a perceived lack of transparency in the settlement process.

Moody's Investors Service downgraded two servicer ratings for Ocwen Loan Servicing, reflecting additional scrutiny by regulators and concerns about the nonbank mortgage servicer's ability to ensure timely payments to bondholders.

Prices of securitized commercial mortgage loans shrank slightly in July, according to DebtX.

HSBC Holdings Plc and Nomura Holdings Inc. lost a bid to block claims by a U.S. regulator the banks say were brought too late, clearing the way for a trial of HSBC over questionable mortgage practices.

An examination of the details in the B of A settlement shows many examples of risky behavior, including mortgage applications that were underwritten with "shadow" guidelines that allowed exceptions to approve almost any loan.

It is looking to sell the property within the next three years as part of a plan to consolidate its office space into a single location.

Freddie Mac's Multi-Indicator Market Index shows ongoing U.S. housing market improvement is uneven despite employment gains in areas with stronger economies.

Allowing the Federal Home Loan Bank System to invest in mortgage-backed securities is just one of many ideas being pitched to policymakers to revive the private-label market.

Essent Group Ltd., the mortgage-insurer backed by George Soros and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., is beating older rivals in the stock market as the U.S. plans to tighten regulation of the industry.

New rules are illuminating a once-shadowy market where servicers can be quick to modify loans and may have few qualms about principal reduction. Discounts or equity make such flexibility possible.

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae all overlooked warning signs about Taylor, Bean & Whitaker that make them partly to blame for the mortgage lender's multibillion fraud scheme, according to a government watchdog report.

Freddie Mac expects housing demand and supply to increase through next year as the economy gradually returns to normalcy.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. agreed to pay $3.15 billion to repurchase residential mortgage-backed securities to resolve federal claims tied to the sale of the bonds to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Goldman Sachs is in the final stages of negotiating $1.1 billion settlement with the Federal Housing Finance Agency, according to a news report Friday.

Delta Lloyds' latest Dutch residential mortgage securitization has an innovative work-around to regulations that make it unattractive to use swaps to hedge interest rate mismatch.

Bank of America Corp. will pay $245 million to settle U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission allegations that it failed to disclose rising mortgage losses and the risks of bonds tied to home loans.