Policymaking

The administration is sending conflicting signals on whether it has a plan to overhaul the housing finance system, further complicating an already complex debate.

Recent data from the Federal Reserve suggests lenders are growing pessimistic about the credit environment. But is that a sign of trouble ahead, or just sound risk management?

Depository mortgage lenders are optimistic the final version of a regulation designed to open up the flood insurance market will make it easier for them to comply with a rule requiring them to accept private carrier policies.

As policymakers consider administrative reforms to Fannie and Freddie, they must address the problem of capital arbitrage to avoid overleveraging the mortgage system.

Policymakers should not let mortgage REITs, hedge funds and other firms gain membership through captive insurance companies.

A lapse in rental-assistance funding, an understaffed FHA and other effects of the government shutdown are causing real harm to families, said the chair of the House Financial Services Committee.

The agency wants mortgage servicers to extend special forbearance plans to those affected by the partial government shutdown and evaluate borrowers for loss-mitigation options.

The banking industry has long been critical of the government-sponsored enterprise, but the system could provide valuable banking services to large swaths of the country currently lacking access to them.

Borrowers and financial institutions may be feeling the strain from reduced operations at the FHA and IRS, which has suspended the release of certain income documentation during the budget impasse.

In her New Year’s message, CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger called on the agency to ensure that consumers are treated fairly and that “the marketplace is innovating.”

With its bolstered fundraising cache, the Mortgage Bankers Association Political Action Committee should hold an increased influence over the industry's policy and regulation issues in the coming year.

The announcement rescinded the agency's earlier guidance issued to industry partners to suspend sales operations as a result of the current lapse in funding from Congress.

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., will take the gavel on the Financial Services Committee next term.

There is no banking crisis, but the president’s actions are threatening to create one.

Kathy Kraninger's first official action as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is to reverse course on acting chief Mick Mulvaney's effort to rename it the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, which consumer groups and others had sharply criticized as confusing and costly.

The Trump appointee officially took over for Mick Mulvaney as head of the agency following her Senate confirmation last week.

Lawmakers have had to extend the program eight times since October 2017, as Congress has been unable to pass broader reforms.

The result could play a big role in whether banks see more regulatory relief next year or policymakers can coalesce around a housing finance reform plan.

Despite recriminations about how the crisis and ensuing regulations have tightened loan access, an actual assessment of mortgage credit availability finds the situation is more complicated.

A new analysis of mortgage data demonstrates how default rates, not just approval and decline rates, can be used to evaluate findings of unfair treatment in lending.