Risk management

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.

The narrowing gap between what large and small lenders pay in guarantee fees to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has helped the industry's smallest originators grow their share of mortgages sold to the government-sponsored enterprises.

As negotiations between Greece and its official creditors drag on, more and more Greek homeowners are falling behind on their payments as well, according to Fitch Ratings.

The Federal Housing Administration's new loan defect "taxonomy" may give lenders better clarity on the quality assurance reviews of FHA loans, but it is not a shield from possible enforcement action by the Department of Justice and other regulators.

Mortgage originators willing to help consumers overcome traditional financing hurdles can add more emerging segments of home buyers as clients.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Housing Service is raising the cost of its home-loan guarantees that enable borrowers to purchase homes in certain areas without down payments.

Mortgage-fraud risk appears to have normalized, as the overall rate of fraud declined in 2014 and there has been a shift to specific fraud types on the local level, according to Interthinx.

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.

If you want to know what a Greek exit from the euro would do to the €16.64 billion ($18.54 billion) of bonds out there backed by Greek assets, start with Argentina.

Fannie Mae will no longer charge mortgage lenders to submit loans to its Desktop Underwriter automated underwriting system, a decision that follows a similar move by Freddie Mac earlier this month.

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

Many lenders may not have been ready for the CFPB's new mortgage disclosure rule if it took effect on Aug. 1 as planned. Now a slip-up by the agency itself has given lenders a two-month reprieve.

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.

Pressure from community groups forced Valley National Bancorp to strengthen its commitment to lend in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods in order to win approval for a Florida acquisition. Other banks, too, are now placing CRA efforts front-and-center as they aim to sell deals to the public and their regulators.

Barclays is ending trading in $700 billion of U.S. mortgage bonds that were issued before the financial crisis.

The legal challenge to the government's bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is not necessarily a slam-dunk victory, despite an apparent favorable legal ruling in a similar case, analysts at KBW said.

New regulations for credit rating agencies that took effect this week are expected to make mortgage and other asset-backed securities more transparent by requiring broader disclosure of certain due diligence reports.

Almost seven years after the financial crisis, bond investors are rediscovering their appetite for new debt tied to the housing market.

Freddie Mac is planning its fifth risk-sharing transaction of the year.

Private mortgage insurers see deeper coverage of GSE loans as a way to expand business, while lenders hope it could lead to a reduction to guarantee fees.