Law and regulation

Twenty years ago, Texas became the last state in the union to legalize the home equity loan, allowing people for the first time to use their own homes as collateral.

Florida wades deeper into hurricane season as the debate heightens over what to do with the deeply indebted National Flood Insurance Program and its coverage of properties prone to repeated flooding.

Mayor Byron W. Brown is overhauling the board that oversees Buffalo's public housing for 10,000 residents, an initial step toward tackling ongoing problems at the agency.

The marketplace lender's application for an industrial bank charter is under fire from small banks and progressives, who say it could violate the barrier between banking and commerce and shut out middle-class and lower-income consumers.

California Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative leaders announced that the state's housing crisis will be at the top of their agenda when lawmakers return in August from a month-long break.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling continued the drumbeat of Republican attacks on Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray.

Supporters maintain hope that the Federal Housing Administration will revive a proposed premium cut, but a key obstacle remains: There's no one to run the agency.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's final rule to formalize guidance on a number of TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosures compliance points omits an originally proposed fix for the so-called black hole that's created when a mortgage closing is delayed.

Canadian officials are working to slow a rapid rise in home prices that's being attributed to tight inventory levels in the country's largest cities and is threatening to create a housing bubble.

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.

The ICBA backs a plan to recapitalize Fannie and Freddie through retained earnings and public offerings, but other groups see it as a self-interested proposal to help GSE stockholders.