Mortgage rates rise

The leaders of the House and Senate banking committees announced they had reached an agreement on a bipartisan housing bill that includes several provisions related to banking, from brokered deposits to de novo bank formation.

The OCC has amended the criteria it uses to designate financial institutions as minority depository institutions, including the removal of policy language that the agency said allowed it to continue MDI designation “when the bank no longer met...

The FDIC should take further steps to strengthen its bank supervision, and HUD should take steps to mitigate fraud in federal disaster recovery and improve manufactured housing financing, the Government Accountability Office concluded in separate reports.

The 11 Federal Home Loan Banks were all profitable in 2025, and their retained earnings balance of $32.7 billion was the largest on record, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said in its annual report to Congress.

BancFirst in Oklahoma City has agreed to buy Spirit BankCorp. in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Isabella Bank in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, has agreed to buy Grand River Commerce in Grandville, Michigan.

Continued low construction activity could further reduce demand for construction loans. With building permits coming in only slightly below April’s rate, May’s sharp decline in housing starts could just be a temporary setback.