Finance

The Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) reported an acceleration in foreclosure actions during the third quarter as servicers lifted voluntary moratoriums implemented in late 2010 as the robosigning scandal escalated.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) believes California Attorney General Kamala Harris is pestering Fannie Mae with stupid questions. Whether that opinion is enough justification for the government-sponsored enterprise to ignore her queries is to be determined.

A federal judge issued a ruling this morning suggesting that the statute of limitations may have expired on National Credit Union Administration’s (NCUA) claims that Wall Street banks sold MBS they knew were faulty to corporate credit unions, potentially rendering NCUA suits filed earlier this year moot.

E*Trade Financial Corp. and its insurers have agreed to pay $79 million to settle a class-action suit brought by investors over losses in its mortgage and home-equity loan portfolios.

World Omni Financial has filed an S-3 with the Securities and Exchange Commission to issue ABS under its World Omni Auto Lease Trust.

The American Securitization Forum (ASF) will have California Congressman Ed Royce and Arizona Congressman David Schweikert as keynote speakers at its ASF 2012.

The Justice Department announced Wednesday that it has reached a $335 million settlement with Countrywide Financial Corp., now owned by Bank of America, in the largest fair lending action in history.

Residential loan applications fell by almost 3% for the week ending Dec. 16, despite continued historically low rates, according to new figures compiled by the Mortgage Bankers Association(MBA).

UBS has hired Mike Weir, a veteran of Citadel Securities, as a loan trader.

Existing home sales increased 4.0% in November to a seasonally adjusted 4.42 million-unit rate, after a downwardly revised 4.25 million unit rate in October, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) announced Wednesday. NAR announced its benchmark revisions.

Financial analysts are unfazed by Moody's Investors Service's downgrade of MBIA and National Public Finance Guarantee Corp. (NPFG).

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is considering a plan that would help underwater homeowners who have filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy protection.

The Federal Reserve has proposed to include conventional mortgages under ‘highly liquid assets’ for liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) purposes.

House Democrats are pushing back on the Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA) move to block the city of Chicago from enforcing an ordinance that requires Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to register their foreclosed properties with the city.

Fannie Mae released an updated Seller Guide that included a major change in its Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) rules yesterday.

Daniel Mudd, the former Fannie Mae CEO who is the subject of a new, massive Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) fraud suit, announced Wednesday morning that he is taking a leave of absence from his current employer, Fortress Investment Group (FIG), New York.

The combined value of loans in CMBS pools hardly budged from October to November, according to data released today from DebtX. Based on loans that the advisory firm prices, the figure at the end of November was 85.2%, from 85.3% on Oct. 31.

Federal regulators on Tuesday disclosed one of the best kept secrets in town: how they planned to regulate the largest U.S. banks and what additional capital and liquidity firms would now need to hold.

It's been three long years since the GSE “buyback” wars commenced in earnest, and you would think by now the worst might be over. Well, think again.