Kate Berry

With economists fearing high unemployment stemming from the pandemic, the housing finance system is grappling with how it will recoup lost revenue from delinquencies, forbearance plans and other tremors.

Refinancing activity is surging, existing borrowers are inquiring about loan modifications, loan closings are being delayed by more complex credit checks — and banks are short on people to handle it all.

Kathy Kraninger was grilled about whether her agency and others were doing enough to cushion consumers from the economic blow of the coronavirus crisis.

The agencies recommend steps banks should take to proactively prevent disruption of operations, minimize contact between staff and customers, and plan for how affected employees reenter the workplace, among other things.

The agency's effort to engage with lawmakers on a whistleblower award program is one of three initiatives the bureau announced to advance its strategy of preventing consumer harm.

The court’s liberal bloc and Chief Justice John Roberts, who holds a crucial swing vote, appeared reluctant to remove a contentious provision that limits a president’s ability to fire a sitting director of the bureau.

John Roberts could play a familiar role as the swing vote in determining whether the Supreme Court curbs the consumer bureau’s power.

The release of Richard Cordray's retrospective of his tenure will come one day before the Supreme Court hears a pivotal case about the leadership structure of the agency.

Debt collectors would have to tell consumers upfront that they cannot sue to recover "time-barred" debt under a proposal issued Friday by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The Trump administration proposes cutting personnel and other budgetary items at the bureau, while the agency’s director — who controls the purse strings and was hand-picked by the administration — aims to boost spending and hire more employees.

Members of the House Financial Services Committee chastised Kathy Kraninger for not supervising student loan servicers and failing to examine firms for compliance with the Military Lending Act.

Think Finance, which had teamed with tribal lenders to offer high interest installment loans, could no longer make or collect on loans in states that have caps on interest rates, under terms of a proposed settlement with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

In a letter to CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger, the Democratic senators argue that task force members cannot be trusted to protect consumers because they have represented payday lenders or Wall Street banks, or worked at law firms that did so.

The two agencies said they will exchange student loan complaint data after their information-sharing efforts had been in limbo for over two years.

Now that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says it will scrap an unpopular standard for so-called qualified mortgages, the big question is what will take its place.

The agency has named Thomas G. Ward as the bureau’s assistant director for enforcement. House Democrats have questioned Ward's role as a political appointee in the Trump administration.

In the past, the agency cited the legal term in enforcement actions without stating what it meant, but Director Kathy Kraninger has sought to give the industry clearer guidance.

Democratic lawmakers, state attorneys general and others filed briefs with the Supreme Court rebutting claims that the agency’s leadership structure is unconstitutional.

The agency is sending a strong message that it won’t rush to end an exemption for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac while also signaling longer-term changes that will affect all lenders.

In another sign of state officials trying to outdo the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, governors in California and New York want greater authority to license and oversee the debt collection industry.