The Five Star Diversity Symposium was a day-long event focused on advancing the conversation on diversity within the mortgage industry, and featured keynote addresses from industry leaders as well as panel discussions. Represented were companies and government agencies within the mortgage industry, including the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas.

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Melvin Watt testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Thursday on the status of the housing finance system after nine years of conservatorship. His message? Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac need to be reformed, and soon, else taxpayers will be footing a hefty bill next year.

On May 10, representatives from the leading mortgage servicers and default servicing law firms in the U.S. met to discuss issues currently impacting business. The Servicer Summit is a biannual gathering of leaders from the mortgage servicing and legal communities focused on fostering conversation and learning from each other.

Following the stepping down of Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry on Friday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin appointed Keith Noreika as Acting Comptroller and designated him the First Deputy Comptroller of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). On Monday, Noreika held his first address to OCC employees, expressing his eagerness to learn the agency.

Bankruptcy filings took another fall for another straight month in April 2017. The number of filings has dropped year-over-year every April since 2011, according to April 2017 AACER bankruptcy data reported by Epiq Systems this week.

Situs recently announced that it has completed its acquisition of The Collingwood Group, a Washington, D.C.-based advisory firm.

Clayton Holdings LLC recently announced that it has developed an enhanced internal audit services program. The program is designed to help bank and lender clients develop, manage and enhance their internal risks and controls programs and comply with new government-sponsored enterprise and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau requirements

Total Home Value for Portfolio Monitoring is a self-service, fixed-cost solution that CoreLogic states will help mortgage lenders and servicers evaluate and understand the collateral value of their mortgage portfolios on a periodic basis. CoreLogic states that this solution frees mortgage lenders, insurers, servicers and investors from budgetary constraints that may have resulted in foregoing current valuation information.

With traditional lending systems such as banks not meeting the needs of consumers, fintechs and online lending platforms have become a much more valuable resource for investors and consumers. Fintechs can use non-traditional data to underwriting and lending techniques to assess the credit worthiness of loan applicants using online information gleaned from social media, etc., notably loan applicants that may appear as “credit invisible” to other institutions. However, this "alternative data" brings security risks.

In an effort to better serve some persistent affordable housing problems in the U.S. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac released their proposed Duty to Serve plans. "Duty to Serve presents a welcome opportunity to lead the mortgage industry and help more American families with their housing needs," said Danny Gardner, Freddie Mac's vice president of affordable lending and access to credit. The purpose of the plan is to better serve some persistent affordable housing problems in the U.S.