Enforcement

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is telling lenders that down payment assistance programs still qualify for FHA backing despite concerns raised last year by HUD’s inspector general.

Wells Fargo & Co. agreed to pay a $70 million penalty in ending the bank’s five-year fight to settle legal claims over foreclosure missteps after the 2008 credit crisis.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating whether Deutsche Bank AG inflated the value of securities in its mortgage-bond trading business and masked losses around 2013, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Bank of America Corp.’s Countrywide Financial unit was exonerated of allegations that it sold defective residential mortgage loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with an appeals court throwing out a judgment against the bank of more than $1.2 billion.

Two recent court rulings affirmed that lenders can enforce electronically signed and transferred notes, laying important groundwork for wider adoption of electronic mortgage technology that could improve the customer experience for borrowers and save lenders and servicers a bundle.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Thursday won the right to pursue a lawsuit against several large financial institutions accused of selling tainted mortgage securities to a company that has since failed.

New York's financial regulator has issued subpoenas to two companies with ties to Apollo Global Management as part of an inquiry into housing transactions for low-income buyers.

Credit access and homeownership for low- to moderate-income families are under siege by the DOJ's overuse of the False Claims Act, as lenders worried about punitive damages discontinue Federal Housing Administration loan programs.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will propose changes in late July to its mortgage disclosure rule to provide "greater certainty and clarity" to the mortgage industry.

Ocwen Financial Corp. has fulfilled its consumer relief obligation under the National Mortgage Settlement ahead of schedule. But that doesn’t mean it’s in the clear yet.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray sent a four-page response to Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., about new mortgage disclosures but fell short of providing any new official guidance to address industry concerns.

Large lenders are pushing the Federal Housing Administration to revamp its loan defect taxonomy to provide more certainty about potential errors and mistakes that could lead to enforcement actions.

The monitor of the Bank of America Mortgage Settlement distributed roughly $89 million Tuesday to legal assistance groups in nine states from a fund for federal tax assistance.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development said Friday that an agreement was reached between Fidelity Bank and the Fair Housing Project of North Carolina Legal Aid.

Two St. Louis-area investors have been indicted on charges they defrauded the failed Excel Bank on real estate loans.

Freedom Mortgage has agreed to pay $113 million to settle government allegations that it failed to comply with Federal Housing Administration requirements for originating and servicing FHA-insured loans.

Quicken Loans plans to appeal a recent federal labor ruling that the Detroit lender and other companies owned by Dan Gilbert violated employees' rights.

Goldman Sachs Group will pay $5.1 billion to settle a U.S. probe into its handling of mortgage-backed securities involving allegations that loans weren't properly vetted before being sold to investors as high-quality bonds.

The co-owner of a mortgage company responsible for a large-scale fraud scheme was sentenced to 21 months in prison in a Newark, N.J., federal court.

The housing market has been improving but mortgage credit remains "stubbornly" tight on loans bought by the government-sponsored enterprises, according to a chief housing adviser at the White House.