Finance

A powerful group of shareholders is amplifying attacks on housing finance reform legislation as they await resolution of a major legal battle, attempting to slow momentum on the bill before it likely passes the Senate Banking Committee.

Mortgage bondholders have long complained to regulators that the national mortgage settlement gave large bank servicers credit for principal reductions and loan modifications they did not pay for themselves.

The recent housing recovery has been the saving grace for some 2005-2007 subprime mortgage bonds, but in others, delays in getting distressed properties to market have offset home price gains.

As drafted, the Johnson-Crapo bill would allow big banks to originate, aggregate, and guarantee mortgages. Small lenders worry such vertically integrated companies could price them out of the business.

The Senate Banking Committee is scheduled to vote on its bill to overhaul the mortgage finance market on April 29, but questions are now being raised about whether that date will slip, as supporters struggle to secure additional votes.

Colony American Homes has completed a securitization transaction backed by income generated from almost 3,400 single-family rental homes.

Jose Gonzalez, the first Hispanic president of a Federal Home Loan Bank, envisions eventually allowing new categories of lenders like REITs to join the system, but wants membership to stay as it is for now.

Freddie Mac will soon add another automated review on the appraisal reports it receives through the Uniform Collateral Data Portal.

Bank of America Corp.'s Countrywide unit and insurer Allstate Corp. settled a 2010 lawsuit over $700 million in devalued mortgage-backed securities.

Disclosing loan-level data is crucial to rebuilding investor confidence in mortgage-backed securities. It also introduces the risk of compromising borrowers' personal information.

Genworth Financial projected net profit will climb 29% this year at the Australian mortgage insurer that’s slated for an initial public offering.

Radian Group said Chief Executive Officer S.A. Ibrahim’s incentive compensation more than doubled last year as the mortgage insurer’s stock surged.

Efforts to overhaul the housing-finance system could hinge on how far Congress is willing to go to ensure that young, low-income and minority homebuyers can get mortgages.

Citigroup Inc. agreed to pay $1.13 billion to settle claims from mortgage-bond investors as it seeks to curb liabilities tied to the financial crisis.

A big investor in SWS Group has objected to the Dallas company's planned sale to Hilltop Holdings.

After a year in which bankers have voiced steady opposition to the qualified mortgage rule, more than a third now say they will make non-QM loans in targeted markets, a major reversal from the industry's past stance.

After slogging through several quarters of high expenses and shrinking profits, some lenders are now selling mortgage servicing rights to raise cash to cover payroll and expenses, industry sources say.

The apartment-lending units of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were among their few money makers after the U.S. housing collapse. Now they should help transform the U.S. mortgage industry.

Efforts to help underwater borrowers with second liens have had little success, and the Treasury's authority to create new homeowner aid programs under the Troubled Asset Relief Program has expired.

New rules should protect the FHA from losses on reverse mortgages and make prepayments more predictable for bond investors, but they also slow the production of loans available for securitization.