Maxine Waters

The legislation, which the chamber passed Thursday, would ban collectors from making threatening statements to military service members and prevent credit bureaus from including debt arising from certain medical procedures.

The top Democrats on the House and Senate banking committees urged the Trump administration to pull the plug on any steps to overhaul Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with the pandemic still taking a toll on the economy.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been slammed for planning an additional refinancing charge to cover COVID-related losses, but the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency defended the policy in House testimony.

The letter written by Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., and Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, was seen as a boost to Wall Street lobbying efforts seeking to quell the fallout of the coronavirus crisis on the mortgage market.

If Capitol Hill plans another round of stimulus, Democrats could have more leverage to demand steps such as suspending overdraft fees or placing a temporary cap on consumer lending rates.

Most states have some kind of pricing limit on consumer loans. But proposals for a national usury law divide even Democrats, some of whom are concerned about restricting credit.

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.

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.

The six bills championed by Democrats aim to reduce consumer burdens and provide opportunities for borrowers to rehabilitate their credit, but the legislation has garnered no Republican support.

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

The House Financial Services chair is sponsoring a bill with one of the Democratic presidential contenders aimed at alleviating the public housing capital backlog.

Regulators have long warned the credit bureaus about deceptive marketing that causes consumers to sign up unwittingly for paid monitoring services. But the practice has persisted, according to complaint data.

A hearing on legislative proposals exposed a sharp partisan divide over a regulatory plan to restrict the frequency of collection calls.

All Democrats supported the bill focused on the decisions of former acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney, while all Republicans opposed it.

Ahead of testimony by the CEOs of the major bureaus, House Financial Services Committee leaders proposed sweeping changes for the credit reporting industry and credit-score protections for furloughed government workers.

The agency's acting director said he welcomes lawmakers' “insight and perspective” on how to end the conservatorships of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

A lapse in rental-assistance funding, an understaffed FHA and other effects of the government shutdown are causing real harm to families, said the chair of the House Financial Services Committee.

The announcement rescinded the agency's earlier guidance issued to industry partners to suspend sales operations as a result of the current lapse in funding from Congress.

Lawmakers and industry groups were caught off guard when FEMA said it wouldn't issue flood insurance policies during the government shutdown, despite an extension passed last week.

The newly sworn-in director’s first public remarks seemed to contrast with the approach of her predecessor, Mick Mulvaney, who at times questioned the role of the agency.