Law and regulation

Lenders should be excited about the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosures because it will help them provide better customer service and new opportunities to engage and educate borrowers.

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of senators reintroduced a bill Wednesday that would prohibit lawmakers from using certain housing finance fees to offset unrelated government spending.

The window for moving financial services regulatory relief through Congress is rapidly closing, but there appears to be little hope that the partisan tensions that have stalled the process will ease in time.

A report to examine the conditions surrounding last year’s unrest in Ferguson, Mo., is calling for officials to strengthen poor minority communities’ access to banking services and restrict the prevalence of predatory lending to reduce crime and poverty.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau could be doing more to "enhance the accuracy and completeness" of entries into its consumer complaint database, according to the agency's Inspector General.

The Senate passed a bipartisan bill late Tuesday that would cap executive pay at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

License numbers for loan officers, real estate agents and settlement agents will be required on one of the new TILA-RESPA integrated disclosure forms, raising questions about whether they could trigger investigations of possible illegal marketing services agreements.

California lawmakers passed legislation to change the way communities wind down their shuttered redevelopment agencies, leaving cities and their advocates trying to tally the effects of the last-minute bill.

Brian Webster, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's mortgage originations program manager who has worked on a number of technology-related policy and research initiatives, is leaving the agency to join Wells Fargo Home Mortgage.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren is withdrawing her support for a Republican bill that had been on the fast track to bar the Treasury Department from selling Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac preferred shares, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The Justice Department's announcement that it would target individual executives at banks and other companies that are being investigated for wrongdoing has sparked a debate about whether the move is actually substantive or instead just designed to boost the agency's public image.

Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry said banks could consider loan-to-value ratios above 90% to help revitalize areas hurt by the housing crisis.

Every consumer with a 401(k), retirement account or brokerage account ought to care about whether the government has the right to unilaterally amend a company’s operating agreement.

Nearly 20 trade groups representing lenders, banks, credit unions, title companies and others are urging federal regulators to provide guidance on how they plan to enforce a new mortgage disclosure regime that goes into effect Oct. 3.

Amid growing concerns about compliance costs in title insurance, a trio of title agents has formed a consortium to help smaller firms manage their back offices more efficiently.

Walter Investment Management has reached a settlement with federal authorities over reverse-mortgage practices at a business unit.

Home Equity Conversion Mortgages have gotten a bad rap, but they're often a better alternative to home equity lines of credit for both borrowers and lenders.

Two top Justice Department and CFPB officials said this week that they are seeing more instances of redlining and lenders steering minority borrowers into higher cost loans.

The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data set to be released in the next few weeks will offer new proof that mortgage lending activity was stronger than expected last year. That fresh data, the likely delay in Fed action on rates and other factors could prompt higher volume estimates for 2015.

The Federal Housing Administration is re-issuing a loan certification proposal that has sparked industry concerns that it will make it easier for the Justice Department to sue lenders when they file claims for agency-insured loans that go into default.