Risk management

Wells Fargo is raising minimum credit score requirements on Federal Housing Administration loans, part of the ongoing jockeying by large banks to limit lawsuits by the Justice Department for defective FHA loans.

Equifax has agreed to provide Fannie Mae with anonymous, loan-level FICO credit scores as part of its monthly disclosure program.

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.

Loan performance has improved since the housing crisis. But credit challenges persist, while higher housing costs combined with a plateau in wages have put increased strain on some borrowers' finances.

Freddie Mac is making plans for its first risk-sharing transaction tied to actual losses on mortgages with higher loan-to-value ratios in the 80% to 95% range.

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.

Mission Capital Advisors in New York has merged its mortgage services business with Global Financial Review Inc. in Englewood, Colo.

In the wake of an unprecedented U.S. housing bust that evolved into a global financial crisis, the business of bundling home loans that aren't backed by the American government into bonds that can be sold to investors has all but disappeared.

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.

The rising costs to service mortgages reflects a market where there are not only downsides to being too small, but hurdles to being too large — raising the question of whether there's a middle ground where servicers are not too big, not too small, but just right.

Royal Bank of Scotland said it will return to selling interest-only mortgages after scrapping the riskier loans in the wake of the financial crisis.

Moody's Investors Service just flagged a risk in bonds backed by single-family rentals: there aren't enough special servicers.

Fraud risk has diminished as a result of widespread changes that lenders have made to their origination practices, according to Fitch Ratings.

M&T Bank has agreed to pay $485,000 and change its lending policies to settle a lawsuit that accused the Buffalo, N.Y., company of racial discrimination in making mortgage loans.

A new battle is brewing between Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as the government-sponsored enterprises set out to boost their purchases of low down payment loans.

Bank of America has settled a national class-action lawsuit brought by former employees who claimed they weren't paid for overtime work.

Residential mortgage servicers are once again tapping the securitization market to fund advances to bondholders for the first time since April 2014.

Credit Suisse is taking advantage of the relative calm in credit markets Thursday to launch its second residential mortgage securitization of the year.

In the world of property valuations, there's no such thing as the "perfect" comparable sale. From design and architecture styles to energy efficiency, here's a look at 10 home features most frequently adjusted in appraisals.

CMBS primary issuance won't pick up again until September, according to Barclays.