Law and regulation

The House Financial Services Committee approved several bills Thursday designed to boost the private flood insurance market.

For Democrats, the scandal is a prominent symbol of big-bank misbehavior, while Republicans want to use it to show the shortcomings of the CFPB.

The Senate voted 95-4 on Tuesday to confirm Brock Long as the next head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Louisiana landlords with rental houses walloped by 2005's Hurricanes Katrina and Rita were eventually promised state help to rebuild: If they could get loans to rehab their properties, the state government would later reimburse them.

The CFPB's decision to drop a requirement that third parties verify a debt's accuracy before collecting on it is likely to speed the agency's efforts to write rules for all parts of the debt collection market.

The Erie County, N.Y., Legislature unanimously adopted a resolution asking for a state law that would enable local leaders to shorten the foreclosure timetable for bank-owned vacant homes.

While the courts have affirmed cities’ right to file predatory lending suits, they are also now holding them to a much higher standard in proving that banks knowingly steered minority borrowers into high-cost home loans.

Following the lead of other California cities, Mayor Eric Garcetti two years ago proposed charging a fee on construction and using those funds to build affordable housing in Los Angeles.

The House passed a bill that assigns Qualified Mortgage status to loans that banks hold in portfolio.

A week after officials disclosed a 57% rise in Los Angeles' veteran homelessness, advocates say the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is delaying housing development on its West Los Angeles campus.