Chronicles

Mortgage delinquency rates hit pre-recession low

Information from a newly launched assessment tool shows mortgage delinquency rates have dropped to levels not seen since before the recession, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said.

According to the CFPB’s Mortgage Performance Trends tool, the national rate of seriously delinquent mortgages peaked at 4.9 percent in 2010. As of March 2017, the rate had fallen to 1.1 percent, the lowest level since 2008.

That recovery extends to the recession’s hardest hit states. [Continue]

Community Development Bank completes branch purchase

Community Development Bank, FSB, of Ogema, Minn., has completed its purchase of the First American Bank, N.A., branch in St. Michael, Minn. The deal closed on Oct. 20. First American, based in Hudson, Wis., acquired Great Northern Bank in St. Michael in 2014 and converted it into a branch. Great Northern was a 1999 de novo. First American Bank was formed in 2007. [Continue]

Nine banks in region will note centennials in 2018

In 1918, James Kewley, Wilbur Kerns and Henry Knoche organized the Onarga State Bank, Onarga, Ill. In 1983, the bank changed its name to Federated Bank of Onarga, and in 2018 the bank will be one of nine in the Upper Midwest to commemorate a centennial anniversary. [Continue]

Midland States Bancorp catches eyes of investors, community bankers

Midland States Bancorp, Inc., has concluded its purchase of fellow Illinois bank Centrue Financial Corp. That marks the 12th acquisition since 2008 by the Effingham, Ill.-based operator of Midland States Bank. There could be more, as Midland States has fresh SEC permission to sell as much as $165 million of new stock “to support the continued implementation of our organic and acquisitive growth strategies,” said Leon J. Holschbach, president and CEO. [Continue]

Opportunity finds opportunity in Montana

Opportunity Bank of Montana, Helena, will acquire Ruby Valley Bank, Twin Bridges, Mont. According to FDIC records the acquisition of the $90 million Ruby Valley will make Opportunity the fifth-largest Montana-based bank with $800 million in assets. Ruby Valley has two branches — Twin Bridges and Sheridan — and the combined company will have 16 branches. [Continue]

CFPB finalizes payday lending rule

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has finalized its payday lending rule, creating “strong, common-sense protections” to prevent “financially vulnerable consumers” from falling into “payday debt traps,” the bureau said. [Continue]

Banker argues for GSE reform

More than nine years after Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were first brought into the conservatorship of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, they remain there. Both the ICBA and the ABA addressed the House Financial Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance about the reform of the two government-sponsored enterprises Wednesday. [Continue]

Congressional denial of CFPB’s restriction on arbitration agreements

A Congressional denial of the CFPB’s restriction on arbitration agreements took another step forward late Tuesday night thanks to Vice President Mike Pence casting a tiebreaking vote in the Senate. With Republican Senators Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and John Kennedy (La.) voting with the Democrats, the Senate split 50-50, leaving it to Pence to break the tie on a resolution voiding the CFPB’s rule. [Continue]

SoFi application for deposit insurance draws scrutiny

Rep. Maxine Waters, ranking minority member of the House Financial Services Committee, has written FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg, requesting his agency conduct a public hearing to consider SoFi’s application for deposit insurance on the industrial bank it is chartering in Utah.

SoFi is Social Finance, the six-year-old company that has made a name for itself in the online lending space focusing on student debt. More recently it has begun offering mortgages and personal loans. In June, SoFi submitted the application with the FDIC; Rep. Waters, a Democrat from California, sent her letter to Gruenberg on Aug. 25. [Continue]

IBMC and Iowa banks honored for home lending

The Iowa Finance Authority has recognized top lenders from throughout the state for their efforts in advancing affordable homeownership through IFA’s programs in 2016, and Iowa Bankers Mortgage Corporation (IBMC) was named the top lender. [Continue]