Law and regulation

Democrats and Republicans, who have agreed on little this year, have found common ground on plans to give private insurers greater access to the $5 billion flood insurance program and to offer more buyouts for homeowners in areas likely to be repeatedly submerged.

FHFA Director Mel Watt sketched a regulatory vision that included greater scrutiny of funding mechanisms and large exposures to single borrowers.

President Trump has nominated Paul Compton, an Alabama attorney with affordable housing experience, to serve as general counsel for HUD.

Lenders are objecting to the Trump administration's proposed $30 million fee designed to partially fund upgrades to the FHA.

In an attempt to show it went all out to help struggling homeowners, the embattled mortgage servicer Ocwen Financial provided an unusual level of detail about foreclosures it says regulators have deemed "inappropriate."

The JPMorgan Chase CEO was in rare form at the Milken Institute conference, speaking without a filter on a range of controversial topics.

Mortgage Bankers Association President David Stevens is confident that housing finance reform will move forward under the Trump administration, but criticized calls to simply let the government-sponsored enterprises recapitalize and be returned to shareholders without additional reforms.

The landmark ruling remands the city of Miami's 2013 suit against Wells Fargo and Bank of America to the lower court.

Wells Fargo Bank has dramatically increased its borrowings from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines, more than doubling the San Francisco institution's level of advances.

President Trump is locked in a political game of chicken with Richard Cordray, the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Lawmakers from both political parties are increasingly interested in forcing lenders that offer loans to upgrade home heating and cooling systems to issue better disclosures, a prospect that has some in the industry nervous.

The bill from three GOP senators would require Truth in Lending Act disclosures for so-called Property Assessed Clean Energy loans, which are currently exempt from the law.

Fourteen institutional investors represented by the law firm Gibbs & Bruns are supporting the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy plan administrator's offer to settle certain securitized mortgage repurchase claims with securities' trustees.

Low scores make it harder for banks to get regulatory OKs to expand, but Wells is in retrenchment mode anyway.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is facing criticism from bankers and credit unions over its planned pilot program to allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to securitize manufactured housing loans.

Bankers and housing advocates say many low-income housing projects simply won't get built if the White House and Congress move to eliminate two federal block grant programs.

The debt is costing taxpayers $4 billion a year, but rather than forgive it Republicans remain focused on creating a private flood insurance market.

The HUD inspector general reignited an ongoing dispute with housing regulators, saying $29 billion of Federal Housing Administration mortgages may be at risk because they relied on deceptive borrower-financed down-payment assistance.

Ben Carson is facing a turbulent housing market as he takes the reins of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, with mortgage rates rising, inventories tight and home prices higher.

The Senate voted 58-41 on Thursday to confirm Ben Carson to be the 17th secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.