Capital markets

Banks have started reconsidering how much they are willing to pay for low-income housing tax credits as expectations of a Trump tax cut surge, slowing down some projects already and threatening developers with heavier financing burdens.

Wells Fargo, which lost its status as the world's most valuable lender after a scandal in its retail bank, said profit dropped 5.4% as revenue from its mortgage business declined.

Housing and Urban Development Secretary-designate Ben Carson is open to finding alternatives to the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, but believes there must be some government backstop to the housing market.

Former Jefferies LLC managing director Jesse Litvak, on trial for defrauding clients on the price of mortgage bonds, is finally getting to present the evidence that he believes will keep him out of prison — testimony from his hand-picked expert witnesses.

Mortgage rates moved lower for the second consecutive week on the market's reaction to November's employment numbers, according to Freddie Mac.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have hiked the standard modification benchmark interest rate.

Treasury Secretary-designate Seven Mnuchin will divest himself of his investments and interests in a number of companies and funds once confirmed, including a fund that has bet on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac being recapitalized and released from government control.

The Federal Housing Administration said it would cut the annual premium by 25 basis points starting on Jan. 27, giving President-elect Donald Trump a limited window to delay or scrap the cut.

New approaches to credit scoring lower the standard of the criteria required to receive a mortgage loan, at greater risk to the industry.

The lending arm of U.S. Department of Agriculture guaranteed 3,439 single-family construction loans in the first quarter of fiscal year 2017, which ended Dec. 31, but just nine of those loans involved its new single-close construction-to-permanent financing option.