Compliance & Regulation

A federal jury has convicted the leader of a mortgage fraud scheme that guaranteed to pay off homeowners' mortgages but failed to fulfill this promise.

On any given morning when I'm not running off to catch a jet to someone else's city to preach the gospel of safe lending and investing the Interthinx way, you can find me tuning in to one of the day's morning “news” shows during a cardio workout; mostly to exercise rolling my eyes at what the world has been up to the day before.

The first-ever statewide PACE program, which already has $2 billion of validated bonding capacity from a Florida court, is on an aggressive track toward implementation with the selection of nationally recognized financial advisors.

November remittance data showed that the $192 million loan backed by the Manhattan Apartment Portfolio was liquidated. According to Barclays Capital CMBS analysts, if the loan's disposition strategy is right, this might be considered the largest note sale ever in CMBS.

The extraordinary actions taken by the Fed during the financial crisis were a "problematic exercise in credit allocation," according to Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Jeffrey M. Lacker, who added purchases of U.S. Treasury securities could have created the same "expansion of reserve supply."

The unemployment rate will remain above 7% for the next three years and the country won't be at “maximum employment until 2016,” Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco president and chief executive John C. Williams said Friday.

The Fed can do more to help the economy, and buying mortgage-backed securities could be a good start, since it would boost the beleaguered housing market, Federal Reserve Bank of New York President William Dudley said Thursday.

Moody's Investors Service downgraded the rating of Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA) to A2 from A1 on Friday.

Mike D'Alonzo last week officially stepped down as president of the National Association of Mortgage Brokers, saying he wants to spend more time running his Pennsylvania-based brokerage firm.

The nominee to run the Federal Housing Administration opposes extending higher limits on federally-insured loans.