Ed Roberts

Officials at CMG Mortgage Insurance Co., a joint venture between CUNA Mutual Group and PMI Group, are trying to reassure their credit union customers that the financial problems of the latter will have no affect on the JV and its ability to write new MI policies.

In one of the first actions of its kind, the National Credit Union Administration late last week filed a civil claim against a local real estate appraiser in Salt Lake City, saying he provided a faulty appraisal for a loan that caused roughly $400,000 in losses at the defunct Utah Central Credit Union.

Evangelical Christian Credit Union, Riverside, Calif., has been granted permission by a federal bankruptcy court to foreclose on a 22-acre property owned by the Life Church of God in Christ where Lehman Brothers had a junior mortgage.

A San Diego judge recently ruled that there is enough evidence for a former local police officer and his wife to stand trial on felony charges in connection with the trashing of their foreclosed French Valley home, which was financed by San Diego Metropolitan Credit Union.

Lawyers for the National Credit Union Association told a federal judge in Los Angeles that the federal agency's June 20 suits against JPMorgan and RBS Securities should not exonerate officers and directors of WesCorp FCU in the 2009 failure of the one-time $34-billion corporate credit union.

In the first two of what promises to be several legal actions seeking compensation for the corporate credit union crisis, the National Credit Union Administration sued two of the biggest Wall Street banks last week seeking to recover losses from the now-toxic mortgage-backed securities they sold to four of the five failed corporates.

Kinecta Federal Credit Union, Manhattan Beach, Calif., said it is one of the first credit unions to offer a low downpayment mortgage that will help borrowers buy one of the more than 1 million foreclosed homes now owned by Fannie Mae.

St. Mary's Bank, Manchester, N.H., has pledged to make $2.5 million in new funds available for low-income Home Loan Payment Relief, or HLPR, mortgages, the subprime mortgage program developed by the Credit Union National Administration.

A Minneapolis mortgage broker was convicted last week of orchestrating a loan fraud that cost local lenders, including Anoka Hennepin Credit Union, losses of more than $4.6 million.

The National Credit Union Administration late Monday came to market with its 13th and final offering of NCUA Guaranteed Notes, selling $2.21 billion of mortgage-backed product to investors.

Columbia Credit Union, Vancouver, Wash., this week inked a deal with Security One Lending, allowing the CU to offer its customers reverse mortgages.

A prominent realtor, her son and daughter-in-law pleaded guilty earlier this week to an expanding mortgage fraud that enabled them to buy expensive vacation homes at Alabama’s Gulf Shores using “straw borrowers” to qualify for credit union loans.

An over-concentration of subprime mortgage-backed securities caused the failure of Members United Corporate Federal Credit Union, the one-time $14 billion corporate CU that is restructuring itself, the National Credit Union Administration said in a new report issued late Monday night.

Space Coast Credit Union, which filed suit last week against Barclays Capital over CDOs the investment bank sold to Eastern Financial Florida CU, is expected to file similar suits over the next few weeks against other Wall Street firms in the 2009 failure of the one-time $2.4 billion credit union.

CRIF, the Italian financial services provider, this week continued its buying spree of credit union lending software companies with the acquisition of Cypress Software Systems.

Mortgage Harmony Corp., Tysons Corner, Va., announced that CMG Mortgage Insurance Co. has agreed to provide private mortgage insurance for its self-adjusting HarmonyLoan.

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston this week filed a complaint seeking to rescind the purchase of nearly $6 billion of MBS whose collateral is underpinned by loans to homeowners with sketchy credit.

NASA Federal Credit Union, Upper Marlboro, Md., said it will begin offering 100% financing on mortgages in the greater Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, which is considered one of the better housing markets in the U.S.

It appears that 100% financing on home mortgages is back – at least for a few days.

Davis + Henderson, Toronto, said it raised $122 million in a secondary share offering, which the financial services firm used to finance its acquisition of online mortgage origination provider Mortgagebot.