Strategic planning

The two megabanks said that their capital requirements will rise in the wake of Federal Reserve stress tests, putting downward pressure on their distributions to shareholders. Meanwhile, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and others announced plans to raise their dividends.

The nation's largest bank indicated Monday that it may again offer home equity lines of credit to a wide audience. Rising mortgage rates have made the product more attractive after a long drought when low rates suppressed demand.

The central bank also signed off on Webster Financial’s acquisition of Sterling Bancorp and WSFS Financial’s purchase of Bryn Mawr Bank Corp. The moves come amid a political fight over the bank merger approval process.

The bank's noninterest expenses fell by 8% in the second quarter — a sign that CEO Charlie Scharf is making progress in reining in spending that had been soaring in recent years amid heightened regulatory scrutiny. He ultimately hopes to reduce gross expenditures by $8 billion annually.

CEO Charlie Scharf disappointed investors by failing to provide either a detailed road map for long-term expense reductions or say when he might release such a plan.

Altisource Portfolio Solutions cut its previous-quarter net loss by 49% in its most recent fiscal period, when property maintenance revenue and new Hubzu real estate auction site inventory increased.

Borrowers were more than twice as likely to use a lender they found online in 2018 as they were in 2017, making search engines the mortgage industry's top source of referrals.

The company will shutter the offices it inherited when it bought EverBank in 2017 and focus on lending to existing customers through digital channels. U.S. Bank will assume the leases on about 25 properties.

Altisource Portfolio Solutions plans to discontinue its buy-renovate-lease-sell business for single-family homes and sell its short-term inventory in order to cut costs and repay debt.

Wells Fargo will lay off 1,000 workers primarily from its mortgage unit in the first major round of a previously announced plan to cut the bank's workforce by as much as 10% over the next three years.

The company is facing criticism after a big chargeoff on two properties, showing that investors have little patience when a risky business model shows signs of distress.

The cuts are part of a broader effort to trim expenses by roughly $3 billion a year by 2020.

Banks could shed as much as 20 million square feet of office space over the next five years as they shift many functions to high-tech operations centers in markets with cheaper rents.

The Seattle company is firing 127 people, or a tenth of its mortgage staff, after enduring months of slow activity.

The Seattle company has faced criticism from an investor over its commitment to the business, which lost money in the first quarter.

The bank will spend an additional $1.4 billion on technology in 2018 to gain share and boost efficiency, executives said Tuesday. But they were peppered with questions about whether the big investment will yield a big financial return down the road.

The company said it will lay off more than a dozen employees in a move that reflects the current volume of mortgage loan originations.

The Tennessee company also set high expectations for revenue opportunities while projecting it will deliver a 15% return on equity in 2019.

Higher costs dampened mortgage lenders' profitability, outweighing near-term gains in origination volume and per-loan revenue during the third quarter, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's quarterly.

Sometimes reaching underserved borrowers takes experimenting with changes to the mortgage finance system. That's why Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are working with lenders to test innovative loan products that meet borrowers' evolving needs.