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Federal Reserve Gov. Michelle BowmanBloomberg News WASHINGTON — Michelle Bowman has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate to be the Federal Reserve vice chair for supervision. The Senate confirmed Bowman's nomination in a 48-46 vote, split along party lines. Once she is sworn in, Bowman will serve as the top bank regulator at the Fed, wielding considerable influence over key banking agenda items, including retooling the 2023 Basel III endgame capital proposal and broader deregulation of the industry. The tight vote for Bowman's nomination was unexpected. Bowman is a favorite of the banking industry — and community banking sector in particular, having been a community banker herself. Moderate Democrats on banking issues would typically be relied upon to shore up the votes in favor of her nomination. The nomination and confirmation process, however, has been less bipartisan under the Trump administration as it pursues sweeping changes that Democrats argue undercuts the function of government and regulatory independence — a particular point of interest at the Fed. Bowman, for her part, promised to protect political independence at the Fed for monetary policy, but not specifically for bank regulation. "It is important that we maintain our independence with respect to monetary policy and the responsibilities that we have that are related to the economy," she said at her confirmation hearing earlier this year. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., who ended up voting against her nomination, asked at the confirmation hearing what would happen if the Office of Management and Budget would implement a rule saying that the Fed had to check in on bank regulation rules with the White House. "I hope you would say that would be inappropriate," Warner said. "We haven't seen that happen at this point … ," Bowman said."The key word … in that sentence is 'at this point,'" Warner interrupted."But I appreciate that concern," Bowman said. "I agree with the principles of cost-benefit analysis and ensuring that we've identified a problem that needs to be solved and we need to provide an analysis that supports rulemakings that we put forward. So I wouldn't think we would have challenges with any rulemaking that we might want to engage in."Banking and industry groups applauded Bowman's confirmation. "Sound banking regulation and supervision are crucial for maintaining a safe and robust financial system," the Financial Services Forum president and CEO Kevin Fromer said in a statement. "As Vice Chair for Supervision, Governor Bowman will be instrumental in shaping policies and practices that affect the ability of banks to support our economy and promote financial stability. America's leading banks look forward to working with Vice Chair Bowman to advance effective regulatory and supervisory policies that benefit the broader U.S. economy.""With her deep experience as a federal regulator, state regulator and community banker, Governor Bowman understands the real-world impact U.S. banking rules can have on the economy and consumers," said Rob Nichols, American Bankers Association president and CEO in a statement. "We applaud the president for nominating her and look forward to working together to develop a rational bank regulatory framework that preserves the commitment to safety and soundness that we all share, while giving banks of all sizes the chance to support their customers and communities and drive the U.S. economy forward." The credit union industry group also lauded her confirmation. "She brings strong financial services experience and expertise to the role as a former community banker and has met with credit union organizations many times through the years," said Jim Nussle, America's Credit Unions president and CEO in a statement. "Bowman is a strong ally for credit unions and our issues and agrees with our concern with the Fed's proposal to cap debit interchange fees. Her role as Vice Chair for Supervision gives credit unions a stronger voice in financial regulation. We thank the Senate for moving quickly on her confirmation."Consumer groups and Democratic lawmakers have argued that Bowman's promised deregulation could hurt consumers. "Trump has nominated Fed Gov. Michelle Bowman to become one of the most important financial regulators in the US and the world, the Vice Chair for Supervision at the Fed," said Dennis Kelleher, president and CEO of Better Markets, in a statement. "Her job will be to protect the jobs, homes and savings of hardworking Main Street Americans from the profit-maximizing risks created by Wall Street's biggest, most dangerous megabanks. Unfortunately, Bowman has the opposite views: while claiming to care about Main Street, she enthusiastically and unequivocally supports those banks' priority of deep, broad and mindless deregulation, which will no doubt contribute to another horrific crash." 

Bloomberg News In 2018, the Federal Reserve Board's total growth restriction on Wells Fargo established a new tool for dealing with large banks with broken compliance cultures.Many in and around the banking space viewed the $1.95 trillion asset cap — imposed in response to Wells Fargo's cross-selling and fake accounts scandals — as a high-water mark for regulatory enforcement, one they believed would inform how regulators administer similar penalties moving forward.But after seven years, billions spent by the bank on reforms and billions more in lost potential growth, it is unclear to the rest of the banking sector and the broader public just what the San Francisco bank did to get out from under the cap. The Fed's 169-word written statement announcing the removal of the asset cap on Tuesday simply stated that the bank made "substantial progress" on addressing its deficiencies and "fulfilled the conditions required" to remove the restriction. Sean Vanatta, a financial historian and author of "Private Finance, Public Power," a book on the history of bank supervision in the U.S., said the minimal disclosure provides little guidance to other banks that might find themselves facing similar penalties and leaves the broader public to reach its own conclusions about why the cap is being lifted now. "The lack of transparency as to what this really means makes it hard for outside observers on either side of the question to have a sense what it is that Wells Fargo did to have this order lifted, and whether, as external observers, we should be satisfied with this," Vanatta said.While growth restrictions are a fairly common tool for bank supervisors to compel institutions to come into compliance, the cap imposed on Wells Fargo was unique in both its size and scope. The penalty has only been used on one other large bank, Toronto Dominion, which had its growth capped last year in response to a sweeping money-laundering scandal. In some ways, the lifting of the asset cap was bound to come with unclear reasons and motives, since correspondence between banks and their regulators are often deemed confidential supervisory information. But it isn't clear how much of the haziness surrounding the lifting of Wells' asset cap can be chalked up to prudent information management. In an appearance on CNBC on Wednesday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., argued that congressional committees have long been trusted to deal with confidential information and are capable of shielding it from the broader public. Given the scale of Wells Fargo's malpractices — which resulted in the opening of millions of unauthorized credit cards and checking accounts in customers' names — she said the public deserves some insight into whether the bank has sufficiently changed its ways."I want the Fed to give the Congress, the Banking Committee, five years of bank examination documents. I want to see what it is that Wells Fargo represented to the Fed and what the Fed asked of Wells Fargo," Warren said. "Remember, the oversight job of Congress is both for these giant financial institutions, but it's also oversight over our regulatory agencies, including the Fed, to make sure the Fed is doing its job."Some view the longevity of the penalty as an indictment of the Fed more than the bank. Karen Petrou, co-founder and managing partner of Federal Financial Analytics, said if Wells Fargo was consistently failing to get into compliance, its supervisors should have increased the penalty to force swifter action. On the other hand, she added, if the bank had satisfied the necessary criteria years ago, regulators should not have dragged their feet in removing the cap."If the supervisors are not just following picky little details and the bank is truly delinquent, then they should move past one enforcement order and slam them with another," Petrou said. "But seven years of limbo speaks to me of supervisory failure, not Wells Fargo recalcitrance."Petrou said regulators are incentivized to keep enforcement actions in place longer than necessary to avoid being held accountable for scandals or bad actions that might arise from a bank after their release. It leaves banks in a state of perpetual limbo, she said, hinders their competitiveness."We need to have a much more rapid, meaningful, fish-or-cut-bait approach to supervisory orders," Petrou said.The limited disclosure about the end of the asset cap has left other frustrating, albeit predictable, information gaps, including why the underlying enforcement action remains in place despite the removal of the growth restriction. Fed Chair Jerome Powell told the Senate Banking Committee in 2018 that Wells Fargo would not have to fully implement its remediation plans to have the cap lifted, but that it merely needed to be "on track." Mayra Rodriguez-Valladares, a financial risk consultant, said it is not unusual for enforcement actions to be pulled back in phases. She noted that the Fed could have kept the enforcement action in place because of lingering concerns about Wells Fargo's governance and risk management, but added that she would have liked the board to make that distinction clear."What does this mean? Was there just a lag or are you still finding problems? It does send mixed signals, removing the cap while keeping the enforcement action in place," she said. "They really should have explained what they were thinking."The order imposing the asset cap provides some broad standards for withdrawing the asset cap specifically. The action, which was approved by a 3-0 vote of a depleted Federal Reserve Board on February 2, 2018 — then-Chair Janet Yellen's final day at the central bank — with then-Vice Chair for Supervision Randall Quarles abstaining, identified a four-step process for removal.Wells Fargo would first have to submit written plans for improving its governance and risk management. Then, those plans would have to be approved by officials in Washington and at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. The bank would then have to implement those plans and have its actions reviewed by a third party. Finally, Wells Fargo would have to get a notification, in writing, from the Fed that the prior three conditions had been met. Since then, Wells Fargo has taken numerous steps to address its shortcomings, including building out comprehensive, firm-wide compliance and oversight programs. The growth restriction has also caused it to wind down products, sell off business lines and avoid certain types of deposits."We are a different and far stronger company today because of the work we've done," Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf said in a written statement Tuesday after the cap was removed.But when and how those efforts became sufficient to satisfy regulators and why it took the bank so long to reach that point is unclear. Wells Fargo, through a spokesperson, declined to comment on its efforts to get out from under the asset cap.In a 2018 Senate Banking Committee hearing held shortly after the Fed's enforcement action against Wells Fargo, Warren pressured Powell to commit to additional transparency measures related to the cap, including a public vote on its ultimate removal and the disclosure of the third-party review of the bank's reforms. In a follow-up letter, Powell said the confidential supervisory and personal information likely to be included in the third-party report would probably prohibit the Fed from releasing even a redacted version. But, he committed to review the report and "determine whether and to what extent the report can be publicly disclosed without impairing protected interests."The Fed's vote to remove the cap, which took place on May 30, did not have a public component. The Fed also has not indicated whether it will release the third-party review, which was originally supposed to occur by September 30, 2018. The lifting of the asset cap has been largely expected by investors and appears to have been priced into the bank's stock — which closed at $75.38 on Wednesday, slightly below the $75.65 it closed at on Tuesday before the announcement — ahead of the cap's removal. The bank had already been freed from seven other enforcement actions from various regulatory agencies this year. Todd Baker, a financial consultant and adjunct faculty member at Columbia University Law School, said the period of growth restriction and strict oversight has likely made Wells Fargo a stronger bank, forcing it to not only improve its compliance functions but also operate more efficiently. Given how closely lawmakers and the broader public are likely to scrutinize the bank moving forward, Baker said the Fed must have a high level of confidence in Wells Fargo to avoid further scandals, at least for the foreseeable future."The last thing the regulators want is to announce the removal of this asset cap and then two months later, issue another enforcement action for something serious," he said. "So, it's an indication that they really do feel that, after all those years, Wells has taken enough steps that they're in a relatively confident position as to the likelihood of future blowups."Still, the lack of explanation from the Fed — whatever the reason — leaves an information void that can only be filled by speculation. Vanatta said that is not a desirable outcome, particularly in light of how closely the removal of Wells Fargo's regulatory shackles align with the arrival of the new Trump administration, which has championed lighter regulation in pursuit of greater economic growth. "It leaves a lot of room for questions," Vanatta said. "Personally, I'm content to take the Fed's word that Wells Fargo has met the criteria, but because we don't have any insight into how — into what that means — it makes it look like it could be a political action, or the Fed is trying to preemptively defend itself from criticism by just ending this case and trying to move on."

The Federal Housing Administration has revised updates planned for rules around contacting and offering options to distressed borrowers.The FHA has removed required outreach at particular times from a planned transition to permanent loss mitigation options from temporary pandemic contingencies, and also is tweaking modernization of what were originally "face-to-face" meeting requirements.Overall, the new version of the loss mit and borrower contact requirements will be more cost effective for servicers, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development affiliate, which insures certain affordability loans often utilized by first-time homebuyers."These targeted policy updates expand the options available for mortgagees to reasonably engage with borrowers in default and are designed to help them achieve significant savings," FHA said in a bulletin.Reactions to the FHA's distressed borrower rule revisionsOne aspect of loss mitigation some industry experts think the revision improves are certain procedures used to test distressed borrowers' ability to reperform if their loan terms are modified."This FHA policy shift is workable and thoughtful. It modernizes some of the requirements on communication to reflect that it's 2025 and provides some operational clarity on trial payment plans," said Isaac Boltansky, head of public policy at Pennymac, in an email.Industry representatives also indicated changes to the requirements that give servicers more leeway would be helpful to more moderate-sized companies in particular."This is a meaningful step toward aligning compliance with practical servicing realities," said Scott Olson, executive director of the Community Home Lenders of America, in a press release.Previous loss mit requirements for interviews during certain hours within a borrower's time zone "would have proven extremely difficult to small servicers with geographically diverse portfolios," said Donna Schmidt, president and CEO at DLS Servicing and WaterfallCalc."The revised rule is a significant improvement over the first draft, accomplishing the same basic results without nitpicking requirements that overshadow the spirit of the process. I believe both borrowers and servicers will benefit from the new approach," she said in email.

Closed-end home equity loan annual growth outpaced its line of credit cousin in the fourth quarter, increasing 13% above its high point from a year ago, the TransUnion first quarter Home Equity Trends Report found.Total home equity origination, in which TransUnion counts first mortgage refinance activity as well (although it does not distinguish between types), had 23% growth to 720,000 accounts at the end of the fourth quarter from the same period in 2023; because of a reporting lag, this and certain volume data is one quarter behind the other information in the report.READ MORE: Home equity lending has strong two-year runway ahead"A deep understanding of industry dynamics within the home equity market enables mortgage lenders to better identify homeowners who may benefit from home equity lending products — and to tailor their offerings accordingly," the TransUnion report said. "Leveraging tools that provide insights into a homeowner's available equity, such as combined loan-to-value metrics, is essential for executing effective, targeted marketing campaigns." At the Mortgage Bankers Association's Secondary and Capital Markets Conference in May, panelists noted the growth in the product over the previous two years, while expressing optimism for continued expansion through the next 24 months.How are borrowers tapping their home equity?The total outstanding open-end and closed-end home equity accounts grew 5% annually in the first quarter, to 12.1 million. That is also up from 11 million in the first quarter of 2023 and 10.2 million one year before that. HELOCs have a 65% share, while home equity loans have a 35% share.Home equity loan originations totaled 287,000 accounts in the fourth quarter, versus 254,000 for the same period in 2023.Meanwhile, HELOCs grew 8%, to 268,000, up from 248,000. The largest share growth was in first mortgage refis, up 93%, but as other analyses have noted, those numbers were up from an extremely low base, to 165,000 accounts from 85,000 one year prior.HELOC volume is being helped by interest rates for this product declining, a recent ICE Mortgage Technology report said.Who is originating the most home equity products?Credit unions had the largest share of HELOC originations in the fourth quarter at 36%, followed by large depositories at 28%, small depositories at 24% and nonbanks at 11%.But for closed-end seconds, similar in nature to traditional first mortgages, nonbanks had a 56% market share, followed by credit unions at 25%, small depositories, 14%, and large banks at just 5%.By loan amount, $32 billion of HELOCs were produced last year, with large banks and credit unions with similar shares of 33%, small banks at 26% and nonbanks at 8%. For seconds, $14 billion was produced, with nonbanks doing 36% of the volume and credit unions at 34%.One reason why the MBA Secondary panel was bullish on home equity lending's immediate future was the amount of non-mortgage debt held by Americans.The TransUnion report put that total at $790 billion at the end of the first quarter, up 6% year-over-year, with an average of $8,000 owed per homeowner. This is also up from the recent low of $508 billion in the first quarter of 2021.How much total home equity is available?TransUnion calculated tappable home equity at $21.1 trillion as of March 31, up 7% from the same day one year earlier and 62% over the same day in 2018.The total number of homeowners with an equity position of at least 20% in their property is 85.9 million. They have a median $268,000 of tappable equity.Over 6 million homeowners have over $1 million in available tappable home equity, according to TransUnion.At the other end of the spectrum, 27% of low-to-moderate income households have a current loan-to-value ratio of 80% and are able to borrow from their equity.Average home equity extracted for non-LMI homeowners was $252,000 in the fourth quarter, up 0.2% year-over-year, while the median amount of $185,000 was down by 3.1%.For LMI households, the average extracted equity amount of $168,000 was up 0.3% versus the fourth quarter of 2023, while the median of $113,000 was 5.8% lower.What percentage of their line are homeowners using?While HELOC utilization is up from last year, it's down from the pre-pandemic era. As of the end of the first quarter, 57% of HELOC borrowers had used more than 20% of their available credit, versus 55% one year prior. However, the Q1 2025 share is three percentage points lower for the same three-month period in 2019.The shifting need for cash finds 89% of borrowers taking a draw on their HELOC within the first six months of origination as of Dec. 31. On the same day in 2023, the total was 87%, while in the outlier year of 2020, it was just 80%, with the following year rising to 82%.For the other three years TransUnion provided first quarter data for, 2018, 2019 and 2022, 86% had a draw within the first six months.What can lenders do when the draw period ends?There's an opportunity for mortgage lenders to refinance borrowers reaching their end of draw periods in the next two years.The number of accounts that will no longer be able to take out proceeds is approximately 901,000 as of the first quarter, up 5% from one year prior.Of those, 3% expired in the current quarter, 45% will do so in the next 12 months with the remaining 52% by March 31, 2027.How well do home equity loans perform today?Unlike during the financial crisis period, these products are performing well. At the end of the first quarter, 30-day lates were at 181 basis points for HELs and 81 basis points for HELOCs. This compared with 186 basis points and 79 basis points respectively as of March 31, 2024.But in the first quarters between 2008 and 2013, early stage delinquency rates for the closed-end loans were over 6%, peaking at 9.43% in 2010. HELOC lates peaked at 291 basis points in the first quarter of 2010 as well.Similar patterns were seen for both 60-day and 90-day late payments as well for both products. For the first quarter, 60-day lates for closed-end home equity products were 106 basis points, and 90-day were at 76 basis points.HELOCs have a 47 basis point mid-stage and 35 basis point serious delinquency rate.

Treasury yields tumbled after weaker-than-expected gauges of job creation and service-sector activity strengthened traders' conviction that the Federal Reserve could cut interest rates as soon as September.Two- to 10-year yields reached the lowest levels since at least May 9 after the ISM Services gauge for last month signaled contraction for the first time since last June. The bond market added to earlier gains unleashed by ADP Research data showing that private-sector job growth was the weakest in two years. The US government's broader employment data for May, to be released Friday, is expected to show deceleration also.READ MORE: Mortgage rates rise again to highest level since FebruaryThe ADP data drew a swift response from US President Donald Trump, stating in a social media post that the Fed needs to cut interest rates, a demand he's made repeatedly. Traders of swap contracts that predict Fed rate changes priced in higher odds of two quarter-point cuts by year-end, in October and December. The possibility of a move in September increased to around 95% from around 82%."This is a leading indicator into what we think is going to happen in Friday payrolls," Jim Caron, a chief investment officer at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, said on Bloomberg Television. "It does make the Fed probably have to step up and look. The thing they are worried about the most is a softening in the jobs market."READ MORE: April PCE inflation comes in at 2.1%, nearing Fed goalA subsequent drop in oil prices on signs that Saudi Arabia in open to increasing production subsequently spurred yields to session lows, with five- to 30-year tenors sliding 10 basis points on the day, the benchmark 10-year note's to 4.35%.Ahead of Wednesday's data, traders were ramping up bets against Fed rate cuts this year. Expectations rate have waxed and waned since December, when the central bank did the last of three cuts totaling 100 basis points, setting its target band for the US overnight lending rate at 4.25%-5%. The prospect that the Trump administration's tariffs agenda will reignite inflation has curbed wagers on additional rate cuts, despite signs of slowing economic growth.Friday's jobs report is forecast to show employers added 130,000 workers in May, following an April increase of 177,000. The unemployment rate is predicted to remain steady at 4.2%, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists."We are looking at the unemployment rate given it's more of a clear signal," Molly Brooks McGown, US rates strategist TD Securities, said on Bloomberg Television. An upward move in the unemployment rate to 4.5% — from the current 4.2% — would see the "Fed get more concerned," Brooks McGown said. That would "probably" make most investors more comfortable with the Fed stepping in, she said.Donald Trump just posted in reaction to the ADP employment change miss that Fed Chair Jerome Powell "must now LOWER THE RATE." While it's unlikely that Powell himself will be influenced by the president's constructive critique, there are some people with an eye on replacing Powell who may adjust their tone in response. Moreover, bonds are extending their gains following his comments, which may reflect algos trading on Trump headline said Sebastian Boyd, macro strategist.Other US economic indicators have continued to show strength. While the ISM Services gauge and its new orders component indicated contraction, its employment measure unexpectedly detected expansion for the first month in three. A gauge of prices paid by businesses in the sector rose more than anticipated to the highest level since November 2022.A separate US government gauge of hiring strength released Tuesday showed that job openings unexpectedly rose in April in a fairly broad advance and hiring picked up, spurring Treasury yields higher. Fading expectations for Fed rate cuts led the Treasury market to a 1% loss in May as measured by a Bloomberg index, its first since December. For 2025 through Tuesday, Treasuries have gained 2.1%."The JOLTS data seemed to indicate the labor market is holding in better than the ADP report suggests," said Zachary Griffiths, head of investment-grade and macroeconomic strategy at CreditSights. 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune believes the deal that led the House to increase the maximum deduction for state and local taxes to $40,000 will have to be changed in his chamber, according to his office.  The Senate has begun deliberations over President Donald Trump's massive "Big Beautiful Bill" that narrowly passed the House on May 22, with several Republican senators expressing concerns over its cost as well as cuts to Medicaid and clean energy tax credits.Ryan Wrasse, a Thune spokesman, did not provide details about how, exactly, the deal might be revised.   Republican lawmakers from states like New York and California demanded that the SALT cap be raised well above the $10,000 limit established in Trump's 2017 tax overhaul. House Speaker Mike Johnson eventually agreed to the new $40,000 cap.  "It would be very, very hard to get the Senate to vote for what the House did," Thune told Politico. "We've just got some people that feel really strongly on this."The tax measure would also extend tax cuts from Trump's first term that are to expire on Dec. 31, along with new tax relief, including temporarily exempting tips and overtime pay from taxes.Representative Nick LaLota, a New York Republican, indicated that a reduction in the SALT benefit could jeopardize passage of the bill in the House."No SALT. No Deal. For Real," he posted on X Tuesday night.

A Redfin shareholder vote planned for today, June 4, will proceed as planned, according to legal documentation published by a Washington federal court Tuesday. The vote is one of the final steps for closing Rocket Companies' $1.75 billion acquisition of the real estate brokerage.In early May, plaintiff Jason Morano, a Redfin shareholder, sued the company, its CEO Glenn Kelman, and Rocket Companies in an effort to postpone the shareholder vote, arguing that the brokerage omitted key details for investors — specifically, the relationship between Goldman Sachs, Redfin's financial adviser on the merger, and Rocket.However, a Washington-based judge ruled that the shareholder vote will not be postponed, as both Rocket and Redfin released follow-up information that addressed what the suit claimed was missing: full disclosure of a discounted cash flow analysis for Redfin shareholders and the mega-lender's relationship with Goldman Sachs.U.S. District Judge John Chun wrote that, aside from the recent disclosures, there is ample publicly available information outlining Rocket's relationship with Goldman Sachs. In his decision denying a preliminary injunction, Chun noted that Rocket and Goldman Sachs were involved in a revolving credit facility with a total commitment of $1.15 billion when Goldman Sachs prepared the fairness opinion in Redfin's original Securities and Exchange Commission filing."Redfin shareholders can use this information to evaluate the magnitude of any potential conflict between Goldman Sachs and Redfin, and Redfin shareholders can decide for themselves whether this potential conflict influenced the credibility of the fairness opinion," wrote the judge June 3.Judge Chun also noted that Morano in a previous filing agreed that this information was easily accessible to the public and that some of his claims are likely to fail because he does not "identify a material omission."Morano's original complaint filed May 9 alleges that Redfin filed a "materially deficient" filing with the SEC because it does not explicitly outline the fact that Redfin's financial advisor Goldman Sachs is also affiliated with Rocket Companies.Rocket and Redfin in turn called Morano's claims "meritless" and a common tactic used to "tax merger transactions" in separate filings dated May 16.They both swatted away the Redfin stockholder's assertions that there needed to be more thorough disclosures regarding Goldman Sachs's relationship with Rocket. Rocket also argued the lawsuit is designed to force a settlement.When and if the merger is approved, it will be one of the most notable transactions of 2025. The deal is expected to drive additional traffic to Rocket's offerings and bolster its purchase originations. Redfin did not immediately respond to a request confirming when the shareholder vote would take place.

Invitation Homes is stepping into the lending business, loaning $32.7 million to a Texas developer for a Houston housing project. The single-family rental giant said the loan to the unnamed builder will support 156 homes, and it will have the option to purchase the project. The publicly traded company, which owns or manages over 110,000 properties nationwide, said it anticipates more development lending. "By partnering with homebuilders to selectively finance the development of new communities that are future strategic acquisition candidates for Invitation Homes, we can help create much-needed new housing supply while achieving attractive returns," said Scott Eisen, chief investment officer at Invitation, in a press release.The company also touted its acquisition of more than 300 new homes in high-demand markets Dallas, Denver and Nashville, from homebuilders for over $100 million. It's continuing to expand as investor activity in the housing market at-large is stabilizing, after wild swings in the recent low-rate era.Founded in 2017, Invitation owns over 85,000 homes outright, and another 7,660 via joint ventures. It reported $166.2 million in net income in the recent first quarter, a 16.4% annual increase. The industry leader last September also paid the Federal Trade Commission a $48 million settlement to address allegations it overcharged tenants and improperly initiated eviction proceedings.The inventory dynamics in today's housing marketInvitation's latest move comes amid strong demand for new homes, although housing market dynamics are making for an uncertain outlook. While an inventory shortage has long-plagued the housing market, that tide is shifting. At the end of April, the dollar value of the nation's growing for-sale inventory hit a record $698 billion, according to Redfin. The brokerage estimates there are 500,000 more sellers than buyers, reversing the frenzy of the pandemic-era markets.Lofty home prices are also showing signs of receding, but mortgage rates continue to dampen affordability.More builders in April also reported offering price cuts to entice buyers, while the construction industry was anxious over President Trump's tariff threats. Levies on steel and aluminum rose to 50% Wednesday, which could affect commercial builders more so than residential developers.

Jin Lee/Bloomberg JPMorgan Chase & Co. is putting Marianne Lake, one of the leading contenders to one day take over for Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon, in charge of strategic growth and the firm's fast-growing overseas consumer bank. The appointment follows the departure of Sanoke Viswanathan, who's leaving to become CEO of the data company FactSet, according to a memo to staff seen by Bloomberg News. Viswanathan had been a member of JPMorgan's executive committee and had previously been seen as another possible successor to Dimon.In addition to leading the international consumer bank, he was overseeing the international private bank and the workplace-solutions businesses inside JPMorgan's asset and wealth management division.READ MORE: The Most Powerful Women in Banking: No. 2, Marianne Lake, JPMorgan Chase"Sanoke has made an indelible and positive impact on JPMorgan Chase, and we have greatly benefited from his entrepreneurial mindset," Dimon and Daniel Pinto, president of the firm, said in the memo. JPMorgan's consumer offering in the U.K. has attracted billions of deposits, and the company began testing a new credit-card product in the country last year, Bloomberg previously reported. The business already has 2.5 million customers and is "set to expand" to continental Europe, Dimon and Pinto said in the memo. In his strategy role, Viswanathan oversaw many of JPMorgan's investments and acquisitions in recent years. He was previously a partner and the co-head of global corporate and investment banking at McKinsey & Co.Lake is head of the firm's consumer and community banking division, which serves 84 million consumers in the U.S. She ranked second in American Banker's The Most Powerful Women in Banking list for 2024, behind Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser.Lake graduated with a degree in physics from Reading University. She trained as an accountant at PwC in London and, in 2000, she joined JPMorgan as a chief financial officer for one of its trading divisions. She moved to the U.S. in 2004, and eight years later, Lake was promoted to the CFO position.In January 2024, Lake became full CEO of the consumer and community banking division, a role she had shared for more than three years with Jennifer Piepszak, who was named co-CEO of the newly formed commercial and investment bank along with Troy Rohrbaugh.

US mortgage applications for home purchases declined to a five-week low even as rates eased from the highest level since late January.The Mortgage Bankers Association's index of applications for home purchases decreased 4.4% to 155 in the week ended May 30, which included the Memorial Day holiday. The contract rate on a 30-year mortgage fell 6 basis points to 6.92%, according to data released Wednesday. READ MORE: 20 banks with the largest retail mortgage volumes in Q1The MBA report also showed a 3.5% drop in a measure of refinancing, the fourth straight decline.Despite the easing in home-financing costs last week, a sustained decline is needed to help the housing market gain traction. While house hunters are finding they have more choices as a larger number of sellers list their properties, asking prices remain elevated and mortgage rates are still closer to 7% than 6%.The housing market has had a disappointing start to the key spring selling season. Contract signings on previously owned homes fell in April by the most since September 2022, according to National Association of Realtors data released last week.The MBA survey, which has been conducted weekly since 1990, uses responses from mortgage bankers, commercial banks and thrifts. The data cover more than 75% of all retail residential mortgage applications in the US.