Loan Think

Mel Watt's term as director of Federal Housing Finance Agency ends in January, but his exit may be accelerated if the accusations in a new report prove true.

The fees that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac charge for low down payment mortgages disproportionately reflect their risk exposure and make homeownership more difficult for underserved borrowers.

Debates on the issue often focus on how lending decisions affect certain demographic groups, but those analyses tend to ignore an important factor: default rates.

The high cost of preparing for both CFPB and state exams has a disproportionate impact on small independent mortgage banks that don't have the compliance economies of scale of larger lenders.

Instead of shrinking the GSEs, the housing regulator is letting them expand into a host of new products and programs.

Meet the new housing finance reform plan, same as the old ones. While that gives it legs, it also presents big challenges.

To make its technology more relevant to the mortgage industry, Fannie Mae is taking a new approach to developing tools that engages lenders earlier in the process and makes lending more efficient.

A provision to remove new mortgage recordkeeping requirements would help overburdened community banks lend without disrupting data collection that is used to police discrimination.

Supporters say pending legislation would help consumers with little or no credit history. But the bill would instead roll back key consumer protections.

Demands for loan quality aren't just coming from regulators and the government-sponsored enterprises. Secondary market partners and investors don't want to be left holding the bag if loans that lenders create have quality issues.