Law and regulation

Mortgage professionals brave enough to bring mortgage fraud to light deserve the same level of protections as workers in other businesses, rather than be subjected to a patchwork of laws designed for other industries.

The Federal Housing Administration wants to set a hard deadline for servicers to file claims on soured mortgages. Industry executives say it should be manageable — unless foreclosures surge again.

Nearly 25 years after a landmark deal and two subsequent legislative overhauls, glitches in the credit reporting system remain widespread. But while regulators and law enforcement officials are again raising the stakes for the credit reporting industry, critics fear it may not be enough.

The Supreme Court's recent ruling that the disparate impact theory of liability can be applied to the Fair Housing Act means mortgage lenders must be even more vigilant in their ongoing testing and evaluation of business practices that could be interpreted as even unintentional discrimination.

BOK Financial has hired Glenn Brunker to oversee mortgage operations and manage the bank's transition to a new federally required consolidated mortgage disclosure regime.

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights wants to recapitalize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to provide a secure source of funding for affordable housing.

The Supreme Court decision making same-sex marriage legal nationwide could boost mortgage demand as it provides gay and lesbian couples with more financing opportunities and stronger joint property rights.

Despite some silver lining, analysts say the Supreme Court decision upholding "disparate impact" in fair-lending disputes will only embolden activists and regulators to bring more cases.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau went forward with a controversial move Thursday to include narratives in its complaint database.

A senior civil rights official at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is poised to tell Congress Thursday that the agency willfully disregards the process for handling internal employee complaints of discrimination and has repeatedly retaliated against staff who spoke out.

Two groups representing small and mid-size lenders say new proposed state mortgage servicing standards for nonbanks will add an unnecessary layer of regulatory burden, especially for firms servicing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's new mortgage integrated disclosure rules will now take effect Saturday, Oct. 3, two days later than the previously rescheduled Oct. 1 deadline.

Bankers and commercial real estate developers are protesting new restrictions on construction lending, arguing they are poised to hurt credit availability and drive loans into risky, unregulated sectors.

Senate Democrats are urging regulators to investigate potential discrimination in how banks and other financial institutions handle and market foreclosed homes.

The second-largest provider of U.S. mortgages through brokers is bringing back a debt type that that's almost disappeared since the financial crisis: Interest-only loans.

Regulators finalized a rule Monday requiring banks to escrow flood insurance premiums and fees for loans on real estate located in a flood zone.

Black and Hispanic home-loan applicants in New York are more than twice as likely to be denied as white applicants, a study by StreetEasy found.

FHA tries to clarify what loan defects will bring the harshest penalties to guide lenders and instill more confidence.

A technical error made by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has become a saving grace for lenders who had pushed, begged and pleaded for more time to comply with a new mortgage disclosure rule.

It turns out the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's failure to file a two-page form to Congress on time was the unspecified "administrative error" that delayed the effective date for new mortgage disclosure rules.