Compliance & Regulation

When faced with a national issue like the housing crisis, there are times we need to put aside the arguments about who to blame and who should bear the cost so that we can focus on an immediate issue that must be addressed soon in order to help maintain the recovery from the negative impacts the crisis has imparted on all participants.

Part of an agreement with regulators that could result in principal reductions planned for 200,000 residential mortgages owned or serviced by Bank of America as could benefit the bank but could be neutral to negative for some residential mortgage-backed securities bondholders, according to a recent Fitch report.

William S. Haraf, the commissioner of California's Department of Financial Institutions, has resigned from the post, effective March 16.

The departments of Justice and Housing and Urban Development, along with 49 state attorneys general, filed their joint $25 billion agreement with the nation's five largest mortgage servicers in court Monday.

Moody's Investors Service has downgraded Ocwen Loan Servicing's rating as a special servicer to 'SQ2-' from 'SQ2'.

The Federal Reserve Board on Thursday released details on steps three more mortgage servicers are taking to correct deficiencies in their foreclosure practices.

Protestors interrupted Bank of America Corp.'s chief executive Brian Moynihan during an investor presentation Thursday, shouting "Bust Up Bank of America!" and, curiously, "It's International Women's Day."

The outstanding amount of home mortgages as of 4Q11 fell $40 billion quarter-over-quarter and $240 billion year-over-year to $10.3 trillion, Standard & Poor's analysts noted, citing the Federal Reserve flow-of-funds data.

Sustained low interest rates will continue to erode U.S. state housing finance agencies' excess capital and put further downward credit pressure on the agencies, according to a report published Tuesday by Standard & Poor's Ratings Services.

In one of the most ambitious lawsuits of its kind so far, Space Coast Credit Union has filed a civil damage claim against several investment banking firms that sold $150 million of mortgage-backed CDOs to Eastern Financial Florida Credit Union, which failed in 2009, and was then acquired by Space Coast.