Headlines

Freddie Mac recently announced the election of Lance F. Drummond as a director on the Enterprise's board. Drummond, 60, is a senior business leader with extensive experience specializing in business transforming strategy development and execution, operations, technology, and process re-engineering.

Fairholme Funds made the request in court against the GSEs, claiming that their investor ownership stake was taken unlawfully from them by the government when the conservatorship occurred. Fairholme's efforts are a step toward getting their ownership stake returned to them.

Republicans believe the CFPB, which was created from the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, has had the opposite effect of its intended purpose of protecting consumers from predatory financial activity; rather, they believe the Bureau has made big banks bigger and limits options for consumers.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has finally set an official effective date for the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosures rule, after much debate and numerous industry requests to delay the rule. The CFPB issued a final rule moving the effective date to Saturday, October 3, 2015 on Tuesday.

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act's fifth anniversary was acknowledged on Tuesday, July 21, 2015, marking five years since this reform act was enacted. As Dodd-Frank turns five, congress members and industry leaders examine just how effective the reform act has been within the government agencies to which it was applied.

Recently released data from S&P Dow Jones Indices and Experian shows that default rates across the country and across the financial spectrum aren’t just on a steady decline, they hit new lows in May. According to the S&P/Experian Consumer Credit Default Indices, four of the five cities the companies studied through May reported declines in default rates for the second straight month.

Morgan Stanley's net revenues reached $9.7 billion for the second quarter ending June 30, 2015, compared with $9.9 billion in the first quarter of 2015 and $8.6 billion a year ago, according to the company’s second quarter earnings statement released Monday. Morgan Stanley noted that their revenues for the second quarter reflect robust performance in equity sales and trading, strong results in investment banking, and continued progress in fixed income and commodities sales and trading.

Fannie Mae took two major steps this week in achieving its goal of increasing the role of private capital in the mortgage market through credit risk transfers in order to reduce taxpayer risk, as set forth by its conservator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).

In both hearings, Yellen addressed the subject of the much-anticipated federal funds range increase; Thursday before the Senate Banking Committee, she reiterated that more economic improvement, particularly in the labor market, is needed along with confidence that the objective of 2 percent inflation can be met over the medium term. She said the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) would determine on a meeting-by-meeting basis if progress toward that goal is sufficient enough to raise the rates.

Nationwide lender for single-family rental (SFR) property investors B2R Finance announced this week that Darren Thompson has been hired as CFO and EVP of strategy.