Law and regulation

Commercial-mortgage bond buyers are girding for the biggest deluge of offerings in seven years just as the debt becomes harder to sell amid slipping underwriting standards.

Community banks are fighting a plan unveiled by the Federal Housing Finance Agency that would force many banks and thrifts to maintain at least 10% of their assets in the form of home loans or mortgage-backed securities.

Not every distressed borrower can, will or should get a modification. But in cases where they make sense, mod decisions should be swift and significant.

One reason so many federal thrifts have switched to other charters is that the Qualified Thrift Lender test impedes their commercial lending. However, a top regulator says he wants it eliminated.

Edward J. DeMarco, who worked to shrink Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac (FMCC) as their U.S. overseer after the 2008 financial crisis, started a new job this week: senior fellow at the Milken Institute's Center for Financial Markets.

In less than one year, the new RESPA/TILA integrated disclosure final rule will take effect, impacting all aspects of lenders' origination processes and technology.

The time has come for residential private-label mortgage-backed securities in Canada, but the market will look nothing like the United States'.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency issued a proposal Tuesday designed to exclude captive insurers from the Home Loan Bank system.

The overseer of the Federal Home Loan Banks is planning changes to membership rules that would keep investment firms and lenders lacking customer deposits out of the U.S. government-chartered system.

Six years after Angelo Mozilo lost control of the largest mortgage lender in the U.S., and days after news that the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles plans to sue him, the Countrywide Financial Corp. founder is baffled by a new effort to punish him, proud of past triumphs and incensed by criticism.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has charged Evans Bancorp in Hamburg, N.Y., with deliberately failing to provide mortgages in minority neighborhoods in Buffalo.

Redwood Trust and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago are revving up a program to buy and securitize jumbo loans and looking for signs that other FHLBs will participate.

Such a system will not erase past violations, but it can help convince a regulator that a lender is invested in doing business the "right way."

The increased compliance cost for smaller settlement services providers is not due to the statement, but rather because of new consumer protection rules.

The Justice Department's recent $16.6 billion deal with Bank of America over crisis-era mortgage fraud has raised fresh questions over a perceived lack of transparency in the settlement process.

Moody's Investors Service downgraded two servicer ratings for Ocwen Loan Servicing, reflecting additional scrutiny by regulators and concerns about the nonbank mortgage servicer's ability to ensure timely payments to bondholders.

Bank of America has taken a significant reputational hit as a result of its 2008 acquisition of Countrywide Financial. Could it have mitigated some of the damage with a different branding strategy?

HSBC Holdings Plc and Nomura Holdings Inc. lost a bid to block claims by a U.S. regulator the banks say were brought too late, clearing the way for a trial of HSBC over questionable mortgage practices.

A bulletin from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau outlining new policies for mortgage servicing transfers has the industry on alert for another possible round of rulemaking coming down the pike.

An examination of the details in the B of A settlement shows many examples of risky behavior, including mortgage applications that were underwritten with "shadow" guidelines that allowed exceptions to approve almost any loan.