JPMorgan Chase & Co. may jump back into a U.S. mortgage program that helps low-income Americans buy homes, mulling a return years after most banks pulled back from the business in frustration over billions of dollars in penalties, Bloomberg News reported. The New York-based bank is deciding whether to offer more loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration, a program that insures more than $1.2 trillion in U.S. mortgage debt. Promises by President Donald Trump’s administration to make it easier for lenders to avoid fines for mistakes in underwriting are prompting JPMorgan executives to take a fresh look at the risks of making a meaningful push into the market, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing internal talks. The deliberations are still active, and any decision to proceed will depend on a variety of factors. The return of JPMorgan, the nation’s largest bank, would almost certainly encourage competitors to revive their own FHA lending. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon has been a vocal critic of the government’s punishment of banks for errors in loans backed by the agency, telling investors in 2017 that JPMorgan had scaled back its FHA lending because “aggressive use” of the False Claims Act, which resulted in massive fines, had made the program too risky and cost prohibitive for banks.
