Enforcement

Bill Emerson, chief executive of Quicken Loans, said at a recent conference that the threat of government probes and a lack of regulatory clarity are making FHA lending less attractive.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's enforcement attorneys have pulled back on new investigations in order to clear out a slew of pending cases, according to multiple current and former officials at the agency.

Federal regulators fined mortgage servicer Green Tree Servicing $63 million in penalties and restitution on Tuesday, alleging that it mistreated borrowers at risk of foreclosure and failed to honor modifications of loans transferred from other servicers.

The message being telegraphed is consistent: lenders have been on notice to upgrade compliance and strict adherence is now expected.

Quicken Loans filed a lawsuit against the U.S. departments of Justice and Housing and Urban Development over a government inquiry into its FHA mortgage business.

Carrington Capital Management will challenge a court decision to award contractual damages to an investor it blocked from pulling money out of a mortgage securities fund it managed in 2007.

First Horizon National in Memphis, Tenn., swung to a first-quarter loss after it paid $212.5 million to settle an investigation into its pre-crisis mortgage dealings.

Richard Syron, the former chief executive officer of Freddie Mac, settled a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit claiming officials understated hundreds of billions of dollars in subprime loans held by the firm and Fannie Mae.

Lenders must act affirmatively to avoid confusion in the marketplace. A lender's obligations start before a relationship with a potential borrower exists.

NewDay Financial found itself embroiled in another regulatory order, this time stemming from allegations of rampant cheating on mortgage licensing examinations by company employees, including its chief operating officer.

Two House Financial Services subcommittee chairmen are urging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to delay enforcement of a new disclosure regime due to take effect this summer until Jan. 1.

Chase has provided more than $2.2 billion of the $4 billion it owes in consumer relief credit, according to the monitor of JPMorgan Chase's settlement.

Wells Fargo's quality-control procedures will play a key role in a closely watched mortgage-fraud case that could go to trial this summer. Federal prosecutors are using the bank's internal reports to allege its executives knew about deficient loans.

HSBC Holdings defeated New York's lawsuit alleging its paperwork delays put property owners in foreclosure at an increased risk of losing their homes.

The mortgage application and closing process is once again facing an overhaul. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will soon require lenders to provide customers with integrated disclosure forms, which aim to clarify costs associated with real estate transactions. As with any new process, the switch poses a number of challenges for lenders — and could even put business at risk during implementation. Here are five pitfalls to look out for in the process.

Bank of America is asking the Justices to overturn lower-court rulings that mortgage loans with a secondary lien on a debtor's asset can be "stripped down" to zero when the collateral is completely underwater. The decision could affect an even wider range of second liens.

The Justice Department's Clifford White is putting all mortgage servicers on notice that they too will be punished if they flout bankruptcy rules.

Citigroup's failure to pay 24,000 people owed money as part of a settlement with the government over foreclosure abuses has prompted Maxine Waters, the senior Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, to call for an investigation into whether banks missed other borrowers.

A U.S. District Court judge has dismissed a challenge to JPMorgan Chase's $13 billion settlement with the Justice Department.

Nomura Holdings Inc. and Royal Bank of Scotland Group helped fuel a bubble that led to the collapse of the U.S. housing market, an attorney for the Federal Housing Finance Agency said at the opening of a trial over defective mortgage-backed securities.