Federal banking regulators have issued final guidance on commercial real estate lending that raises supervisory concerns about banks with CRE concentrations above 300% of capital, but the Office of Thrift Supervision has taken a different approach and dropped the numerical thresholds.Bankers and key members of Congress have complained that thresholds will effectively force community banks to restrict their CRE lending. However, the banking regulators contend that the thresholds "do not constitute limits on CRE lending," and examiners will be instructed to consider other factors, such as portfolio diversification and risk characteristics, in evaluating an institution's CRE lending program. There is a 300% concentration threshold for all CRE and construction-and-development loans and a 100% threshold for C&D loans, including single-family construction loans. OTS Director John Reich stuck to his guns and dropped the concentration thresholds in issuing final guidance for federally chartered thrifts. Mr. Reich told Congress earlier this year that he was concerned that thresholds will be viewed as caps by institutions and examiners. Reps. Barney Frank, D-Mass., and Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., said they are "disappointed" that the banking regulators included thresholds in the final guidance.
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Ohio-based Liberty Home Mortgage joins several companies who started using a more modernized FICO credit score for nonconforming mortgage originations recently.
4h ago -
The CFPB has dissolved the Office of Supervision, Enforcement and Fair Lending and eliminated the job of associate director in a move that impacts how it designates nonbanks for supervision.
5h ago -
The plan that the Federal Housing Finance Agency floated calls for Freddie Mac to actively invest in some new closed-end seconds as cash-out refinancing subsides.
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The push comes amid what one expert highlighted as lax funding efforts for two Department of Housing and Urban Development grant programs.
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Conventional lending drove volumes higher, particularly in the purchase market, the Mortgage Bankers Association said.
April 17 -
Net charge-offs at the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank increased by more than 80% in the first quarter compared with a year earlier. BofA executives say that the rising losses were in line with the bank's risk appetite.
April 16