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Lower brought onboard Premier Nationwide Lending's branches in December, around the same time it announced the acquisition of Thrive Mortgage. Premier employees ranging from loan officers to branch managers made the transition to Lower that month and throughout January, per the National Mortgage Licensing System. The actual number of employees that went over to Lower hasn't been confirmed. As of October 2023, Premier had about 151 employees in total. According to one former branch manager, the parent company of Premier, NTFN Inc., shuttered. Then the mortgage lender's branches were brought on board by Lower. Lower did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Premier Nationwide Lending, established in 2002, was based in Plano, Texas and had a footprint spread across the South, with branches in Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina and Tennessee. As of Feb. 29, Premier Nationwide Lending is not sponsoring any loan officers and has no active branches, NMLS shows.Recently, Lower has been making strides to expand its footprint nationwide.In December, it announced plans to acquire Thrive Mortgage and a month prior, Lower announced the addition of Universal Lending as a new division within its family of companies. Both retail and wholesale channels of Denver-based Universal were said to be moving over to Lower."The addition aligns with our expansion plans, adding over 60 loan officers and establishing a strong presence in both the Colorado and Montana markets," said Mike Baynes, Lower co-founder and managing director, addressing the acquisition of Universal in November 2023.The mortgage shop's commitment to growth was also highlighted with the November 2023 appointment of a new chief growth officer, Amir Syed, who is tasked with growing Lower's market share through all its channels.Lower operates in 46 states and the District of Columbia under several different brand names and originated about $1.88 billion in volume last year. The company currently sponsors 456 LOs, the NMLS shows.

Fed Governor Christopher WallerBloomberg/Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomber Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said he'd like to see the central bank's holdings of mortgage-backed securities go to zero. Waller is among more than a half-dozen Fed officials set to speak Friday in speeches or broadcast interviews. Others include Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan and Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee.In recent weeks, many policymakers have indicated that interest rates will remain at a 22-year high at least through the Fed's next meeting on March 19-20, with the first cut likely later this year. Officials are watching to see whether January's surprise jump in consumer prices was a fluke or a roadblock on the way toward lower inflation.Fed Chair Jerome Powell will give the view from the top next week in two days of semiannual congressional testimony on monetary policy.Fed Governor Christopher Waller said he'd like to see the central bank's holdings of mortgage-backed securities go to zero. "It is important to see a continued reduction in these holdings," Waller said Friday in prepared remarks at a conference in New York.He also said he'd like a shift in the Fed's holdings toward a larger share of short-term Treasuries. Prior to the financial crisis, about one third of the Fed's Treasury securities holdings were bills, Waller said. Today, these short-term securities comprise less than 5% of their Treasury holdings and 3% of their total securities holdings.Waller is on a panel discussing quantitative tightening — the Fed's process of shrinking its asset portfolio — at the U.S. Monetary Policy Forum hosted by the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He said it's important for any quantitative easing program to be followed by credible quantitative tightening to avoid inflation arising from a permanent injection of reserves into the banking system.Logan says Fed must 'feel our way' to right level of reservesDallas Fed President Lorie Logan reiterated that it'll likely be appropriate for the central bank to start slowing the pace at which it shrinks its balance sheet as the overnight reverse repo facility drains.The Fed will need to approach decisions around the balance sheet carefully, since it's not clear what level of reserves is enough to meet banks' liquidity needs, she said Friday in prepared remarks at the U.S. Monetary Policy Forum."We'll need to feel our way to it by observing money market spreads and volatility," she said. "To me, the need to feel our way means that when ON RRP balances approach a low level, it will be appropriate to slow the pace of asset runoff. But once the ON RRP is empty, there will be more uncertainty about how much excess liquidity remains."She also repeated that slowing the pace of QT doesn't mean the Fed will stop letting maturing assets roll off altogether. The slower pace could allow the the run off to continue for longer, and will also mitigate the risk of liquidity stress.Global central banks shrink with little impact, study saysGlobal central banks are shrinking their balance sheets down from massive pandemic stimulus with little impact on bond or money markets, a paper prepared for the U.S. Monetary Policy Forum said.The effects of quantitative tightening or "QT" have been "very small (or non-existent) on average, statistically insignificant to date, and much less than the impact" of the emergency bond buying known as quantitative easing, wrote Wenxin Du of Columbia Business School, Kristin Forbes of MIT's Sloan School of Management and Deutsche Bank's chief US economist Matthew Luzzetti. The paper studied balance sheet reductions at seven central banks ranging from the Fed to the European Central bank and the Reserve Bank of Australia.Barkin says there's no battle with marketsRichmond Fed President Thomas Barkin said markets are pricing in fewer interest-rate reductions this year in response to economic data, not because the central bank is winning a battle with investors."Lord knows, I'm not spending any time trying to have swagger against the market," Barkin said in a CNBC interview. Economic data has "come in more consistent with our forecast and therefore the markets have adjusted. And I think if the data comes in different then we'd adjust."Barkin said he didn't take much signal from a report Thursday showing the Fed's preferred gauge of underlying inflation rose in January at the fastest pace in nearly a year, noting January figures are volatile and affected by seasonality.The Richmond chief said he was hopeful inflation's going to come down and "then it makes the case for why you'd want to start normalizing rates."Apollo's Slok says Fed won't cut rates in 2024Apollo Management Chief Economist Torsten Slok said that a re-accelerating U.S. economy, coupled with a rise in underlying inflation, will prevent the Fed from cutting interest rates in 2024. "The bottom line is that the Fed will spend most of 2024 fighting inflation," Slok wrote in a Friday note to clients. "As a result, yield levels in fixed income will stay high."

The income needed to comfortably afford a home in the US has leapt 80% since 2020, far exceeding a 23% increase in median income over the same period, according to a post on Thursday by Zillow.The real estate website found home buyers today need to make more than $106,000 a year, up $47,000 from 2020, a change driven largely by higher prices and borrowing costs.RELATED: The 10 best cities for first-time homebuyers in 2024"Housing costs have soared over the past four years as drastic hikes in home prices, mortgage rates and rent growth far outpaced wage gains," said Orphe Divounguy, a senior economist at Zillow. In 2020, a household earning $59,000 a year could comfortably afford the monthly mortgage on a typical U.S. home, assuming the general rule of thumb that a buyer can spend up to 30% of their income on housing and make a 10% down payment. That was less than the U.S. median income of about $66,000 at the time, meaning more than half of American households had the financial means to afford homeownership.Today it takes roughly $106,500 in income to afford a typical home, and median earnings are about $81,000, putting a home purchase out of reach for most families.A model created by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta similarly shows US homes, on average, fell below an affordability threshold in May 2021 and have remained there since. The Fed's Home Ownership Affordability Monitor Index measures the ability of a median-income household to absorb the estimated annual costs of owning a median-priced home. The model, which incorporates nearly 20 years of data, found houses are in their longest stretch below the threshold since 2009.The Zillow study, meanwhile, showed the monthly mortgage payment on a typical home has nearly doubled since January 2020, to $2,188 (assuming a 10% down payment), according to the report. Mortgage rates have eased in recent months as investors expect the Federal Reserve to begin cutting their benchmark interest rate this year. "Mortgage rates easing down has helped some, but the key to improving affordability long term is to build more homes," Divounguy said.In 14 large housing markets, led by a handful of cities in California, Zillow estimated that household income must be $150,000 or more to comfortably afford a typical home. Among the 50 largest metropolitan areas studied, only Pittsburgh still had an income threshold for affordability below the $59,000 national average from 2020.

New York Community Bancorp said Thursday that Thomas Cangemi (right) has stepped down as CEO. He will be succeeded by Alessandro DiNello (left), who became the company's executive chairman in early February. Thomas Cangemi has stepped down as chief executive of New York Community Bancorp, the embattled company said Thursday, as it also disclosed deficiencies in the way it was managing internal controls and recorded a fourth-quarter goodwill impairment charge of $2.4 billion.Alessandro "Sandro" DiNello, who had recently been appointed executive chairman of the Long Island-based company, now succeeds Cangemi as president and CEO, New York Community announced after the market closed. DiNello, 69, is the former president and CEO of Flagstar Bancorp, one of two banks that New York Community acquired in the past 15 months.In a separate regulatory filing, the $116.3 billion-asset company disclosed that its management team has identified "material weaknesses" in its internal controls. Those weaknesses, which relate to how New York Community does internal loan reviews, are the result of "ineffective oversight, risk assessment and monitoring activities," the bank said.Following the disclosures, New York Community's stock price fell by 21% in after-hours trading.Thursday's developments capped a very difficult month for New York Community, a regional bank holding company that over the decades built a large part of its business around making loans to landlords that own rent-regulated apartment buildings in New York City. Four weeks ago, the company reported a sizable quarterly loss and a surprise dividend cut, triggering a steep decline in its stock price. The poor earnings report sparked fears about the quality and outlook of New York Community's office and multifamily loans, and it triggered concerns about the stability of the bank's deposit base.On Thursday, New York Community said the full assessment of its internal controls is ongoing. In its upcoming annual 10-K filing, the company expects to disclose "that its disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting were not effective as of Dec. 31, 2023," the bank said in the filing. A remediation plan to address its problems with internal controls will be included in the 10-K, the filing of which will be delayed as New York Community "completes its work" on the remediation plan, the company said. The 10-K is expected to be filed within the next 15 days, the firm added.New York Community also disclosed that it completed a goodwill impairment assessment on Feb. 23, determining that it needs to take a goodwill impairment charge of $2.4 billion for the fourth quarter. The charge does not impact the company's capital ratios, the company said."While we've faced recent challenges, we are confident in the direction of our bank and our ability to deliver for our customers, employees and shareholders," DiNello said in the press release. In early February, New York Community's board appointed DiNello, who had been serving as the company's non-executive chairman, to the role of executive chairman. In a conference call that day, it was DiNello, not Cangemi, who answered most of the questions from analysts. At the time, DiNello tried to ease fears about the company's deposit base and reassure the market that the chief risk officer position, which has been vacant since early this year, would soon be filled. He also spoke about the need to build capital and reduce the size of the firm's commercial real estate portfolio.In addition to his new roles, New York Community said Thursday that DiNello will remain executive chairman. But the company also announced changes to the makeup of its board, including one departure less than a week ago.Hanif "Wally" Dahya resigned from the New York board on Feb. 25, the company said Thursday in a separate regulatory filing. In his brief resignation letter, Dahya said he "did not support the proposed appointment of Mr. DiNello as president and CEO of the company."Dahya's resignation came less than a month after another New York Community director, Toan Huynh, resigned from the board to "pursue other interests." Huynh, who joined New York Community's board after serving in a similar role on Flagstar's board, resigned on Feb. 6, the same day that DiNello was appointed executive chairman.Also on Thursday, New York Community said that another director, Marshall Lux, has been appointed "presiding director" of the board and chair of its nominating and corporate governance committee, effective immediately.Lux has worked as a senior partner at Boston Consulting Group, advising financial services companies, according to the press release. From 2007 to 2009, he was the global chief risk officer for JPMorgan Chase's consumer bank."The changes we're making to our board and leadership team are reflective of a new chapter that is underway," DiNello said Thursday in the press release.DiNello also said that his "mandate" as president and CEO is to work with the board to "continue our transformation into a larger, more diversified commercial bank."Cangemi had a similar task when he was promoted to the top job in late 2020. His exit ends a 27-year career at New York Community. He was chief financial officer for 15 years before ascending to the CEO job when Joseph Ficalora, who led New York Community for 28 years, abruptly left in December 2020.As part of Cangemi's charge to turn the traditional thrift institution into a full-service commercial bank with a diversified loan book and more low-cost deposits, he went the acquisition route. First, New York Community closed a deal to acquire Troy, Michigan-based Flagstar in December 2022. Then in March 2023, the bank bought much of Signature Bank after that bank failed.The deals pushed New York Community, which is now the parent company of Flagstar Bank, above the $100 billion-asset threshold, which is expected to bring a higher level of regulatory scrutiny. Following Cangemi's exit as CEO, he will remain on New York Community's board of directors, according to the press release. The company did not say how long he will serve on the board.New York Community's management changes "aren't overly surprising," analyst Chris McGratty of Keefe, Bruyette & Woods wrote Thursday in a research note."But the material weakness is a tough headline and contributed to the selloff post-close today," McGratty added. "Prior to this, the stock had stabilized recently, in part due to recent insider purchases." DiNello and Cangemi were among the New York Community executives who acquired stock this month."The immediate focus is twofold, in our view — file 10-K and provide a strategic update once the loan portfolio review is complete," McGratty wrote in his note. Other analysts expressed similar concern. Mark Fitzgibbon, an analyst at Piper Sandler, downgraded the bank's stock late Thursday from "overweight" to "neutral," citing a case of "whack-a-mole" and the potential for "additional issues" to arise."Today's announcements give us concern that there could be more issues coming down the pike," he wrote."None of that gives us comfort in recommending to investors that they should buy the stock," he added.Catherine Leffert contributed to this article.

The Federal Reserve's preferred gauge of underlying inflation rose in January at the fastest pace in nearly a year, helping explain policymakers' patient approach to start cutting interest rates.The so-called core personal consumption expenditures price index, which strips out the volatile food and energy components, increased 0.4% from December, data out Thursday showed. From a year ago, it advanced 2.8%. Economists consider this to be a better gauge of underlying inflation than the overall index.Inflation-adjusted consumer spending dropped for the first time in five months after a robust holiday shopping season, according to the report from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Real disposable income, the main supporter of spending, was little changed.Fed officials have repeatedly said they have yet to reach a level of confidence that inflation is sustainably cooling, and Thursday's report likely reinforces that view in the near term. Policymakers insist it's too soon to start cutting interest rates, and they'll continue to monitor incoming data to guide policy.The core PCE data, on a six-month annualized basis, registered at 2.5% in January, rebounding above the Fed's 2% target after briefly trailing it in the prior two months.Policymakers pay close attention to services inflation excluding housing and energy, which tends to be more sticky. That metric increased 0.6% from a month ago, the most since March 2022. Costs for portfolio management — which climbed by the most in three years — and accommodation led the advance.This is the last PCE report Fed officials will have access to before they meet March 19-20. Chair Jerome Powell and his colleagues have effectively ruled out a rate cut at that gathering, and investors are now leaning toward June as the most likely start time.After the government's report, a few policymakers appeared to take the numbers in stride. Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic reiterated his view that the Fed can probably start cutting rates this summer, while the Chicago Fed's Austan Goolsbee expressed caution about interpreting a single month's inflation data."The last few inflation readings — one came out today — have shown that this is not going to be an inexorable march that gets you immediately to 2%, but that rather there are going to be some bumps along the way," Bostic said in a speech at an Atlanta Fed banking conference.While a still-robust labor market has so far supported consumer spending, the combination of high borrowing costs, fewer job postings and persistent inflation is taking a toll on spending.Thursday's report showed real spending in January was restrained by the biggest decline in outlays for goods in over a year. That was led by the largest drop in purchases of motor vehicles since mid-2021. Services spending continued to climb, reflecting a steep increase in housing and utilities, as well as financial services and health care. Outlays for recreation fell, while purchases at restaurants and hotels rose only somewhat. Separate data out Wednesday showed consumer spending was revised higher at the end of 2023, providing strong momentum into the new year. Fourth-quarter PCE inflation was also marked up slightly in that report.Wages and salaries advanced 0.4%. Without adjusting for prices, incomes climbed by the most in a year, reflecting an increase in Social Security payments given the January cost-of-living-adjustment. The saving rate edged up.Separate data out Thursday showed applications for unemployment benefits climbed by the most in a month, while continuing claims rose to the highest level since November.

Another state legislature has passed a law aimed at protecting consumers and the industry against non-title recorded agreements for personal services, in which homeowners agree to long-term restrictions on property sales.Virginia's is the most recent to pass NTRAPs legislation, joining 20 others that have passed laws, some of which await governors' signatures, according to the American Land Title Association. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin is expected to sign its legislation.The momentum in efforts to pass laws that discourage the agreements, in which a provider pays for an exclusive right to sell a property in the future, is significant to the industry in part because the pacts can impede or complicate mortgages. "The practice preys upon homeowners, offering small cash gifts in exchange for decades-long contracts," said Elizabeth Blosser, vice president, government affairs at ALTA.The new Virginia law makes NTRAPs unenforceable by law. It also disallows and sets penalties for recording them in property records, and creates channels for their removal and payment of related damages if they are.Sixteen states have similar legislation in place and signed by their respective governors: Alabama, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Maryland, Maine, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Tennessee, Utah, and Washington.The legislatures of three other states have passed laws and are still waiting for their respective governors to sign off on it: Indiana, Minnesota, and Oregon.In addition, attorneys general of nine states have filed actions against an alleged purveyor of the contracts, MV Realty: California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina.MV Realty had not responded to a request for comment at the time of this writing. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year, according to the Department of Justice, which has been advocating for the rights of contract holders in that context.

An initiative by the Biden Administration is creating a $225 million fund to preserve and revitalize manufactured housing and the communities that many of those structures reside on.The proposal also indefinitely extends the Federal Housing Administration and Federal Financing Bank Risk Sharing program that provides capital to state and local housing finance agencies so they can continue to offer government-insured multifamily loans at reduced interest rates. The mortgage and housing community is split in its reactions to this portion of the Department of Housing and Urban Development announcement.The Mortgage Bankers Association came out in opposition to that extension "as it undermines the successful FHA Multifamily Accelerated Processing program and creates unfair competition with the private sector," a statement from Bob Broeksmit, president and CEO, said."Instead, the Administration should direct HUD to take meaningful action to make its existing programs more attractive and useful for participating lenders and borrowers," the statement continued. It called on the agency to reduce or eliminate over 20 unnecessary and duplicative fees, increasing statutory loan limits, lower multifamily mortgage insurance premium, among other things. On the other hand, the National Housing Conference commended the extension and supported making this program permanent."Since its inception, the FFB Risk-Sharing Program has closed or committed $4.9 billion for 42,000 apartments," a statement from David Dworkin, president and CEO, said. "With the program's reinstatement in 2021 and now indefinite extension, it will ensure continued access to funds for HFAs to facilitate the creation of new affordable housing units."The new manufactured housing portion of the announcement is called the Preservation and Reinvestment Initiative for Community Enhancement Program, or PRICE for short. The program includes financing for manufactured housing communities, through the FHA 223(f) multifamily program. Rehabilitation financing is also included in this initiative."Coordinating and aligning this suite of new federal actions serves as a force multiplier to expand the availability and affordability of manufactured homes," said Julia Gordon, assistant secretary for Housing and Federal Housing Commissioner, in a press release. "FHA's updated and expanded financing options complement the work of our colleagues in HUD's Office of Community Planning and Development and Ginnie Mae, thereby delivering comprehensive federal support for quality, affordable, manufactured homes in both urban and rural areas."In 2022, NeighborWorks America created its Blueprint for Affordability and Impact that was a guide for the development of these homes either as standalone properties or in parks."Manufactured housing is an untapped resource that NeighborWorks America knows is critical to safely and affordably housing the thousands who need it," said its Director of Rural Initiatives Sarah Kackar. "Our organization has recognized the value of this housing type for over two decades, working to expand its adoption in traditional land ownership models or alternatives like in the successful resident-owned communities."This past year, the organization rolled out more resources for non-profit housing developers to work with their local governments to create manufactured-housing friendly land regulations, Kackar said.The manufactured housing loan limits under the FHA Title 1 program are being increased, and it is the first rise in 15 years, Dworkin noted in a follow-up interview."We need to empower people to buy manufactured homes, the price has been going up but it's still the most affordable housing unit available to millions of people," he said. Across all home types, prices have doubled in recent years, but income hasn't and that's why the loan limit increase is important, he added. Furthermore, HUD/FHA is proposing a mechanism in a final rule that will create an index for future increases in the manufactured housing loan limit, which is currently at the 2008 level of $92,904 for a home and lot combination. Based on an example in the final rule, this limit would rise to $149,782 for a single-section manufactured home and lot or $238,699 for a multi-section manufactured home and lot combo."We've pushed more and more people further and further down the affordability scale and manufactured housing is an important part of the solution," Dworkin said. "We have a massive deficit of affordable homes, millions, and it took us 15 years to dig this hole; it's going to take time to dig out of it. But we have to be smart about looking at all different forms of housing and manufactured housing is a big piece of that puzzle."But one concern for Dworkin, as well as the Manufactured Housing Institute, is another Biden Administration proposal from the Department of Energy that would impose energy efficiency standards that would drive up the cost of these structures."The Manufactured Housing Institute appreciates the progress being made by FHA in trying to stand up the FHA Title 1 personal property manufactured home loan program, particularly with these robust increases in Title 1 loan limits," its CEO Lesli Gooch said in a statement. "MHI renews its call for DoE to withdraw or delay these energy standards — and to endorse legislation to restore HUD as the long-standing federal agency with exclusive jurisdiction over manufactured housing construction and safety standards."Concurrent with these actions, Ginnie Mae has revised its eligibility criteria for the Manufactured Housing Mortgage-Backed Securities program, reducing net worth and liquidity requirements."We've consulted the industry and worked closely with FHA to update and align our Title I eligibility requirements to support more financing in tandem with the vast improvements FHA is making to its program," said Ginnie Mae President Alanna McCargo in the press release. "Today's announcement marks significant progress in expanding access to the secondary market for more Title I Issuers and deploying more capital for manufactured housing lending going forward."Funding for manufactured housing through traditional mortgages has been difficult to obtain because many of the structures not associated with a permanent lot have been considered chattel. Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have manufactured housing financing as part of their duty-to-serve plans."CHLA appreciates today's actions to boost FHA Title 1 loan limits and revise Ginnie Mae policies for manufactured housing MBS issuers," a statement from the Community Home Lenders of America said. "Manufactured housing is a critically important component of affordable homeownership, so CHLA continues to offer our support for HUD efforts to stand up the Title 1 manufactured housing personal property loan program."

A mixed-race couple claims U.S. Bank and an Ohio appraiser violated fair housing laws after a "whitewashed" appraisal delivered a significantly higher home value than their earlier review.Carlos Turner, a Black man, and his wife, Diana Davoli-Turner, a Canadian permanent resident, say the whitewashed appraisal was 39% greater than the bank-appointed review. The couple's federal lawsuit, initially filed in December, echoes a complaint filed in 2022 against Loandepot and follows greater attention from feds on the issue of racial bias in the valuation process.The couple claims their Springboro, Ohio home was appraised by an in-state company at $520,000 in March 2022. It was a review done with a different lender as the homeowners mulled a refinance amid lower interest rates. Davoli-Turner later applied for a home equity line of credit with U.S. Bank, and a review by a different appraiser, Kevin Henley of Henley Appraisals one month later determined a $470,000 home value. Henley's appraisal was filled with errors and the bank did not perform any additional review, according to the complaint. The couple, considering rising rates, a few months later agreed to a $34,363 HELOC with U.S. Bank for a 30-year term with an interest rate over 10%."The Henley defendants' undervaluation of the Turner plaintiffs' home reflected their belief that, because plaintiff Turner is Black, and plaintiff Davoli-Turner is not a U.S. citizen, they did not belong in Springboro, a predominantly white city," the suit states.The Turners contacted the Miami Valley Fair Housing Center, a Dayton-based nonprofit, to investigate their ordeal, and the organization arranged a "whitewashed" appraisal in May 2023. The walkthrough involved removing photographs and other markers of the family's ethnicity, and the plaintiffs weren't present. That review determined that the home's value was $655,000, a figure far outpacing the increase in local property values year-over-year, an attorney for the couple said.  U.S. bank declined to comment on the lawsuit, while attorneys for both parties and Henley didn't respond to requests for comment Thursday.Henley's appraisal allegedly used the incorrect square footage of the couple's home and used an unreliable sales comparison to help determine its value. The appraiser also allegedly asked the couple why they sent their children to a private school for athletics rather than the local high school, which the plaintiffs construed as racially motivated. The bank, in a response earlier this month to the initial complaint, said the school comment raises no inference of discrimination due to the couple's national origin or race. Carlos Turner should be dismissed from the lawsuit, the bank argues, because he did not apply for the loan nor was listed on the appraisals. Davoli-Turner's earlier loan applications were denied for "major" credit report delinquencies, U.S. Bank said, while plaintiffs said the applicant was "unaware" of such delinquencies. Lawyers for U.S. Bank also rejected Davoli-Turner's allegation that the bank's request to confirm her permanent residency status was discriminatory. They point to rules by federal regulators which permit such inquiries, to allow lenders to confirm if consumers can continue to repay. "No facts suggest that any loan was denied due to her Canadian national origin — the refinance and home equity loans were denied because she did not qualify," wrote attorneys for the bank. The Miami Valley Fair Housing Center is also a plaintiff in the case. Henley has not yet retained an attorney per court records in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio's Western Division. The plaintiffs, in addition to seeking damages in excess of $25,000, want employees of the defendants to receive fair housing law training.Financial regulators in recent years have focused more on appraisal bias, making suggestions in the past year for housing stakeholders to monitor for instances of discrimination. The White House two years ago also introduced a task force to combat inequities in the valuations. The similar suit against Loandepot and an appraiser from a Black couple in Maryland remains pending.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced the promotion to deputy director of two of its leaders, who will lead oversight and research divisions.Anne Marie Pippin steps up to help lead the division of conservatorship, oversight and readiness after most recently serving as an associate director for two offices it oversees. Known for her technology expertise in housing finance, Pippin's career in the public sector also encompasses enterprise risk and climate research."With her extensive experience in mortgage finance, innovation, risk management, and corporate governance, Anne Marie's leadership has been exemplary in every way," said FHFA Director Sandra Thompson in a press release. "I look forward to her continued leadership in this role."Prior to her promotion, Pippin was associate director for the office responsible for governance in addition to the office of strategic initiatives and financial technology, both housed within the division. In that role, she sought to address the rising importance of technology and innovation for housing industry stakeholders, helping shape the FHFA's approach to adoption of new tools. Her role also involved supervision of initiatives surrounding FHFA's conservatorship of government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.Pippin joined the FHFA in 2017, previously serving as a manager and examiner in the division of enterprise regulation, where she supported coverage of governance issues and studied the risk of artificial intelligence and machine learning on the agency and businesses it oversees. In addition to the government-sponsored enterprises, the FHFA regulates the 11 institutions that make up the Federal Home Loan Bank system. Before coming to the FHFA, Pippin held several other roles within the federal government, including at the Departments of Energy, Defense and Interior, as well as with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.She also worked on climate risk analysis for the White House Council on Environmental Quality in 2012.The FHFA also named Anju Vajja deputy director for its division of research and statistics. An economist who previously worked at World Bank before coming to the agency, Vajja had been in the role on an acting basis and serves as a research officer, in charge of data gathering and analysis of housing, real estate and mortgage trends. Vajja leads production of the FHFA's monthly house price reports and updates of various systems and resources while heading the agency's data governance and work surrounding climate and environmental, social and governance coordination. "Anju's experience in overseeing the research, analysis, and data governance work of the division of research and statistics, and its production of FHFA's House Price Index, National Mortgage Database, Uniform Appraisal Dataset, is a tremendous asset to DRS and the agency," Thompson noted.Vajja's past positions at the FHFA include managing economist in the division of bank regulation. She also was associate director within its division of housing missions and goals.The promotions come as the home finance industry attempts to grapple with some of the regulatory uncertainty and risks brought on by the rapid growth of artificial intelligence and machine learning over the past several months. They also come as the role of the Federal Home Loan bank system is under debate after its involvement in funding some of the failed institutions in the financial industry crisis of one year ago. In a review of the system, Thompson has demanded that the banks come up with plans and programs to help underserved communities.

Consumers don't trust the artificial intelligence banks are offering, according to new research from J.D. Power.The firm's financial services team examined the topic of artificial intelligence for the first time this month. According to J.D. Power's February banking and payments intelligence report, which surveyed 4,000 retail bank customers, people are reluctant to let AI handle a number of banking tasks, even when a bot could theoretically help them save money by finding good rates or recommending investments. Jennifer White, senior director of banking and payments intelligence at J.D. Power, has noticed a misunderstanding among customers about what is being powered by AI. "There is a distinction between generative AI and using behavioral data that banks might have on hand to customize experiences," she said in an interview. "Generative AI is a new tool and has a little more distrust along with it than perhaps using big data or algorithmic AI to personalize the experience in a mobile app or get the customer information about how they are spending their money."Bank customers also seem ambivalent about the role AI plays in their lives. Nearly a third believe AI will have limited to no impact on them over the next three years, while 17% believe it will make life worse. Twenty-eight percent think AI will make life better. Bank customers have the biggest concerns around using facial recognition to withdraw money from an ATM, with just over one quarter of those surveyed stating that they would never do this; 21% are completely resistant to the idea of tools that automatically change or update investment portfolios. There is less resistance to tools that analyze spending, with only 15% of respondents deeming this out of the question. Fourteen percent are resistant to tools that make investment recommendations. A mere 10% would never use an AI-driven tool that helps them avoid fraud."When the tool itself has an immediate impact on their security or helps them save time or money, they are more willing to accept recommendations," said White. "If the tool moves money on their behalf like a robo advisor or would require them to use something to get to their money, like facial recognition with an ATM, the alarm bells start to go off." She points out that there is much less resistance to AI-driven tools that make investment recommendations, compared with tools that automatically change or update a portfolio. "They stop short of letting AI actually move their money," she said.Still, a third of customers would use tools that change investment portfolios when the technology is proven, and 29% feel the same about facial recognition software at ATMs. Even more would try these technologies immediately or already use them. That means banks have a discrepancy to solve."Banks must repeatedly communicate the benefits of these tools so customers are more willing to trust them and more willing to use them," said White. Moreover, nearly two thirds of those surveyed answered "somewhat" to the question of "how much do you believe using AI in financial services puts you at greater risk for fraud and security breaches?" Twenty percent answered "extremely." These findings are consistent with results from two other recent reports.On Tuesday, Commonwealth, a nonprofit that focuses on financial security for low-income Americans, released a report on emerging technology and AI. It found that concerns about security and privacy are significant barriers to consumers using emerging technologies in finance. For instance, 63% of the 3,000 respondents — who encompass both households living on low- to moderate-incomes and those with higher incomes — cited security as a top concern when using a financial chatbot. Fifty-three percent named privacy. Comparatively, 49% mentioned unreliable responses. People are also reluctant to turn to an AI-driven bot for some banking activities, according to a report published on Thursday by marketing technology company Vericast. It found that 71% of consumers it surveyed prefer to speak with a human agent versus bot for financial advice, while 64% feel the same about fraudulent transactions.