The Financial Stability Oversight Council is encouraging mortgage agencies to continue clarifying when lenders must repurchase defective loans.

Benjamin Lawsky, the New York regulator known for aggressive investigations and headline-grabbing fines against financial firms, is stepping down, and he reportedly plans to make a living offering banks and other companies advice.

With older appraisers retiring and fewer and fewer college graduates entering the profession, industry observers say that, in five to 10 years, there won't be enough appraisers to handle the volume of home sales. For lenders, that could mean higher appraisal fees and long delays in closing loans — at a time when technology could be speeding up the process.

Benjamin Lawsky will step down next month as New York's top bank regulator after four years, during which he threatened to take away the U.S. charters of some of the world's biggest banks and collected billions of dollars in penalties by being the squeaky wheel in global bank settlements.

The proposed legislation for regulatory relief seeks to roll back critical mortgage protections put in place to prevent another housing crisis.

Critics of the regulatory relief bill proposed by Sen. Richard Shelby argue that will endanger the financial system and benefit big banks. But in fact, the changes offer sensible, nonpartisan fixes to some of the biggest problems with the Dodd-Frank Act.

The Rural Housing Service should merge with the Federal Housing Administration to save money and improve service, the head of the Government Accountability Office testified Tuesday.

Lost in the debate so far over Shelby's regulatory relief bill are the significant changes it makes to the housing finance system. It essentially takes consensus elements from multiple past stabs at reform, leaving out the most controversial parts and making future reform far easier.

Calling his state's foreclosure process "badly broken and in need of change," New York banking regulator Benjamin Lawsky wants new policies enacted to fast-track vacant property foreclosures and reform the state's mandatory foreclosure mediation requirements.

It's a good idea to raise the asset threshold at which financial institutions are automatically designated as systemically important financial institutions. But Sen. Richard Shelby's proposed legislation for regulatory relief does require one crucial change.

Consent orders with Sprint and Verizon demonstrate the extent that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau expects businesses — including lenders — to affirmatively protect consumers from harm in any way related to the business transacted between them.

U.S. Bank and Bank of America won't have to face lawsuits claiming they failed to safeguard the interests of investors as required by their contracts.

The regulatory relief package coming before the Senate Banking Committee Thursday would force the Federal Housing Finance Agency to withdraw the contentious proposal within 30 days.

Nomura Holdings Inc. and Royal Bank of Scotland Group should pay $806 million in damages to government-owned mortgage companies over misleading securities pitches, a federal housing agency told a judge.

The owner of an Ohio-based loan administrator, accused by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau of deceptive marketing, says he is the victim of a misguided lawsuit by the agency.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency provided more details Friday about key features for the new single security that will be issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Lenders are heading into the MBA's Secondary Market Conference with stronger origination volumes and secondary market relationships than last year. But how long will these volumes last and how can the industry make the most of them?

Long before regulators put the spotlight on servicing-rights transfers, there were signs that many deals weren't going smoothly, leaving both borrowers and investors at risk.

Before Dodd-Frank, proving risk management precautions were in place was enough; now, the only real defense lenders and servicers have is an audit trail showing how violations were avoided.

The CFPB's powers to initiate enforcement actions are nearly boundless.