Florida. State Attorney General Pam Bondi has launched a civil investigation into the foreclosure practices of a Ft. Lauderdale law firm shortly after Fannie Mae quit sending business to the firm. Ben-Ezra & Katz and its principals, Marc Ben-Ezra and Marvin Katz, are...
House Financial Services CommitteeBills to Shut Down Ineffective Foreclosure Programs. Financial Services Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus, R-AL, announced a subcommittee hearing and a full committee markup of four bills that will eliminate...
The Federal Trade Commission has announced the appointment of Edward Hassi as chief litigation officer for the agency’s Bureau of Competition. He replaces J. Robert Robertson, who left the agency in 2010 to return to private practice. Hassi is formerly a partner at the Washington, DC, law firm O’Melveny & Myers, where he served...
The Obama administration’s proposal to reform the government-sponsored enterprises was largely endorsed by participants in the non-agency market. However, a significant resumption in the issuance of non-agency mortgage-backed securities still appears to be years away... [Includes one graph]
Federal regulators are moving toward establishing national servicing standards, which could have a major impact on subprime servicers. An estimated $630.0 billion in subprime mortgages were outstanding at the end of 2010, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets... [includes one chart]
The Obama administration’s bid to scale back the government footprint in the housing market by allowing conforming loan limits to decline would have a measurable impact on the FHA program. The administration wants to let the “emergency” high-cost loan limit – now $729,750 in the most expensive housing markets – sunset...[Includes two data charts]
Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks all recorded significant declines in new debt issuance during 2010. The GSEs collectively issued $3.454 trillion in new debt during 2010, a decline of 25.3 percent from the previous year. New issuance effectively just replaced...[Includes one data chart]
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac purchases of distressed loans from mortgage-backed securities nearly offset the run-off of the GSEs’ retained MBS holdings in 2010, according to a new Inside The GSEs analysis. Fannie and Freddie held...[Includes one data chart]
Mortgage banking continued to be very profitable for most of the hundreds of banks involved in the industry in 2010, but earnings fell significantly from the previous year, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Mortgage Trends. Newly released call report data show...[Includes one data chart and one graph]
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