Financial Regulatory Forum

    By Corbett B.Daly
   WASHINGTON, April 14 (Reuters) – An Obama administration program to help struggling homeowners modify their mortgages is not moving fast enough to keep up with the growing number of foreclosures, a U.S. congressional watchdog said on Wednesday. (more…)

    WASHINGTON, April 13 (Reuters) – The mortgage chief of the United States’ second largest bank was mobbed by angry borrowers on Tuesday after he invited customers to speak to him if they feared foreclosure of their homes. (more…)

By Huw Jones

LONDON, Jan 8 (Reuters) – Mortgage lenders must check better if borrowers can repay home loans, a global forum of regulators said on Friday in a wide-ranging report aimed at plugging regulatory gaps uncovered by the credit crunch.

The worst financial crisis since the Great Depression began in 2007 with defaults in U.S. home loans which, via securitisation, rippled across the world to harm the economy and force governments to use trillions of taxpayer dollars to shore up banks.

The G20 group of countries is spearheading global efforts to toughen up financial regulation and apply lessons from the crisis.

(Reuters) Oct. 7 – U.S. government-controlled mortgage finance companies Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are working on a program to help independent mortgage banks get access to short-term credit needed to make home loans, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.

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By Karey Wutkowski and Rachelle Younglai
WASHINGTON, Sept 25 (Reuters) – Powerful U.S. lawmaker Barney Frank bowed to some of the financial industry’s demands and softened parts of his bill to create an agency to protect consumers from risky financial products, according to a copy of the draft bill first obtained by Reuters on Friday.

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By Ben Berkowitz
AMSTERDAM, Sept 15 (Reuters) – The European Commission has extended a review of a 22 billion euro ($32 billion) loan portfolio guarantee between ING and the Dutch state, saying the government may have paid too much.

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    SEOUL, Sept 4 (Reuters) – South Korea said on Friday it would impose limits on mortgage borrowing in the capital Seoul and two nearby areas, effective from Monday. (more…)

    By Carey Gillam
   OVERLAND PARK, Kan., Sept 3 (Reuters) – Obama administration officials are wary of rising home foreclosures and are exploring options to increase help to beleaguered homeowners, though they were not immediately supportive of an industry proposal for overhauling Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,  the U.S. Treasury’s leading housing official said on Thursday.
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