News

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced earlier this week that it has issued $24.7 billion in fines and penalties from various organizations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2014, which was more than three times the $8 billion that DOJ collected for FY 2013. Much of the money collected was a result of enforcement actions by DOJ upon financial institutions for their handling of residential mortgage-backed securities.

The number of U.S. homeowners who received non-foreclosure solutions in the third quarter of 2014 totaled approximately 468,000 despite seeing large year-over-year declines in every category, according to data released this week by the HOPE NOW Alliance.

In his first time to testify before Congress since he became director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) in January, Mel Watt on Wednesday outlined three main objectives that make up the 2014 Conservatorship for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and discussed the agency's progress toward each in the last 10 months.

Home flipping sales declined nationwide both quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year, hitting their lowest level since the second quarter of 2009, according to RealtyTrac's Q3 2014 U.S. Home Flipping Report released today.

Settlement talks between Wells Fargo and the U.S. government over alleged mortgage insurance fraud have stalled, according to a media report.

Congressman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) was elected to a second term as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday for the 114th Congress.

Henderson, Nevada-based RIO Software Solutions, the parent company of centralized web-based real estate transaction management platform RIO Genesis, has announced the addition of three key personnel to strengthen the support operation for the company's new technology platform, RIO Office.

Looking at the larger economic picture, the economists predict a 3 percent growth rate for gross domestic product (GDP) in 2015, which would mark only the second year in the past decade in which growth was at 3 percent or higher.

Bank of America's case against two underwater Florida homeowners who filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in order to eliminate the liability on their second mortgages – a practice known as “stripping off” – has made it to the highest court in the nation.

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) and Congressman Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland) sent letters on Tuesday to 16 financial institutions requesting detailed information regarding data breaches and seeking information about briefings from corporate IT officials, according to an announcement on Warren's web site.