In the wake of the financial crisis, the country’s largest credit ratings agencies all touted new ratings methodologies that were, in theory, designed to guard against the sorts of malfeasance that surrounded mortgage bond ratings in the run-up to the crisis. But it looks like the new mortgage bond rating system at one of the nation’s largest credit ratings agencies was far from perfect.

A suburb of Chicago will pay more than $400,000 as part of a settlement with the Department of Justice, which accused the city of denying a low-income housing development in response to “race-based community opposition.” The DOJ alleged that the decision was made with the “intent and with the effect of discriminating against prospective African-American tenants of Buckeye’s proposed development.”

The Bank Secrecy Act requires all residential mortgage lenders and originators to perform an independent review or audit of their AML programs. Here’s what you need to do.

Financial institutions rely on their vendor partners for critical services and solutions. But understanding how vendors are actually performing — and where another vendor could offer better performance — is beyond the scope of most vendor management systems. Lenders need a truly objective look at their business processes which is only possible through reporting and analysis.

NAR’s chief economist reflects on the road real estate has traveled over the last decade and how far the housing market has come.