Secondary markets

Unlike other regulatory agencies that in many cases looked at form over substance, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will ignore structures altogether when it perceives them to be "sham" transactions.

Mortgage-bond trustees rejected a part of JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s $4.5 billion settlement offer over investor claims of faulty mortgages while accepting the deal for most of the transactions.

Freddie Mac sold $659 million of "deeply" delinquent home loans in its first offering of such debt.

Investors have spent years seeking compensation for losses sustained during the housing bust from the firms that made mortgage loans and repackaged them into securities.

The regional banks are repurchasing excess stock and increasing dividends.

If finalized and then approved by regulators, the combination of the Des Moines and Seattle Home Loan banks would be the first voluntary merger in the system’s history.

Bank of America Corp. is nearing a settlement with the Justice Department after raising its proposed offer to resolve probes into its sale of mortgage-backed bonds in the run-up to the financial crisis.

Bank of America Corp.'s Countrywide unit was ordered to pay $1.3 billion in penalties for defective mortgage loans sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis, a little more than half of what the federal government had requested.

In June the unpaid principal balance of Freddie Mac's total mortgage portfolio declined 2.6% from a year earlier, to $1.89 trillion, as total purchases shrank by almost half.

The Federal Housing Administration is revamping its loan review processes to correct faulty underwriting in an effort to lure institutions back to the program.

Jessie Litvak's March conviction was the first tied to the Public-Private Investment Program, an initiative that used TARP funds to spur investments in mortgage-backed securities after the 2008 financial crisis.

JPMorgan Chase may need to pay more than the $4.5 billion it offered to settle investor claims over faulty mortgages packaged into securities before the U.S. housing crash.

Court ruling gives hedge fund access to decision-making that led to Treasury collecting most of Fannie and Freddie's profits.

Lower rates of return would require insurers to charge higher premiums or stop covering loans to borrowers with lower credit scores. (You know, the ones the government wants to help?)

These investors complain they get little say or direct recompense in government settlements with big banks over misrepresentations of mortgage securities like the Department of Justice's $7 billion deal with Citigroup.

"The real question for me is should we be in the FHA business at all," the CEO says.

Ocwen Financial has repurchased approximately $72.3 million in stock from WL Ross & Co., a private-equity firm in New York.

PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust has entered into a repurchase agreement with Bank of America to finance roughly $550 million in newly originated mortgage loans, though its subsidiary PennyMac Operating Partnership.

Mortgage-bond buyers, facing a supply shortage as their market shrinks and trading slows, get a chance tomorrow to bid for securities at the largest auction of its type since at least 2010.

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago is launching a pilot program soon to buy home loans and issue Ginnie Mae securities. The program could allow community banks and credit unions to stay in the mortgage business.