MORTGAGE

U.S. mortgage rates rose for a second straight week, a trend that could continue as key support from the government ceases at the end of the month, a closely watched mortgage survey showed on Thursday.

Serious delinquencies among mortgages jumped in the fourth quarter from the previous quarter, led by a sharp increase in serious delinquencies by the most credit-worthy borrowers, U.S. banking regulators said on Thursday.

Bank of America will on Wednesday announce plans to start forgiving mortgage loan principal for troubled homeowners who owe more than 120 percent of their home's value or are battling ever-expanding negative amortization loans.

A U.S. program aimed at helping struggling homeowners avoid foreclosure has been oversold by the Treasury Department and is likely to be a failure when it wraps up in 2012, a report from the watchdog overseeing the $700 billion bank bailout said on Tuesday.

U.S. mortgage applications fell for a second straight week, with demand for home loan refinancing sinking to its lowest level in a month as interest rates jumped, data from an industry group showed on Wednesday.

Greece can go without borrowing until the end of April and has not yet decided when it will tap capital markets for funds to refinance maturing debt, the country's deputy finance minister said on Sunday.

Fannie Mae, the largest provider of U.S. residential funding, on Wednesday slashed its forecast for residential investment this quarter following a setback in home sales, and warned on its impact on the economic recovery.

Applications for U.S. home loans slid last week despite the lowest mortgage rates in more than three months, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Wednesday.

The end of the Federal Reserve's program of purchasing $1.25 trillion of mortgage-backed securities at the end of March is a form of tightening monetary policy, the chief of the largest U.S. bond fund manager said on Tuesday.

Wells Fargo & Co said on Friday it is in talks with Baltimore officials that could avert further litigation by that city over the bank's mortgage lending practices.

Jon Daurio, chief executive officer of mortgage investor Kondaur Capital Corp., recently offered a $4,000 check to Barry Culver for the deed to his Bryan, Ohio house.

An Obama administration program to help struggling homeowners modify their mortgages has more than one million active borrowers,

Bank of America Corp completed 20,666 mortgage modifications in March under a U.S. government-backed program, up 61 percent from February, the bank said on Friday.

Wells Fargo & Co may be moving toward a settlement of Baltimore's lawsuit accusing it of steering minority borrowers to expensive home loans.

U.S. mortgage foreclosure filings dropped for a second straight month in February, and notched the smallest annual increase in four years as housing-rescue efforts contained activity, a report released on Thursday showed.

U.S. mortgage applications nudged higher last week, reflecting increased demand for home purchase loans even as interest rates trekked higher, data from an industry group showed on Wednesday.

U.S. mortgage applications nudged up last week, reflecting increased demand for home purchase loans even as interest rates trekked higher, data from an industry group showed on Wednesday.

State-owned Northern Rock shrank its losses in 2009, helped by a lower bad debt charge in the second half as house prices stabilized, but arrears rose and the lender warned loan impairments would stay high in 2010.

Two AIG units settled federal charges that they discriminated against black home buyers on fees for mortgages and will pay $7.1 million for restitution and education efforts, the U.S. Justice Department said on Thursday.

Four top executives of Thornburg Mortgage improperly paid themselves handsome bonuses just before the mortgage lender filed for bankruptcy last year, and stole money and ideas from Thornburg to secretly launch a new firm, the bankruptcy trustee in charge of liquidating the lender alleged in a lawsuit.

Iceland can get by without more cash from the International Monetary Fund until it needs to refinance debt in 2011, although any big delay will hit its economy, a central banker said on Thursday.