Government

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced Friday it's granting more time for the industry to implement new mortgage disclosures required under Dodd-Frank and the Consumer Protection Act. The extension was provided ""in order to allow a more seamless integration with other mortgage disclosures that have been proposed by the Bureau,"" the CFPB said in a statement.

Since the IRS will soon allow electronic signatures on Form 4506-T, Equifax announced it has enhanced proprietary verifications services in anticipation of the change.

Fixed mortgage rates dropped to all-time record lows amid indicators of higher consumer confidence and lower wholesale prices, according to Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey. According to the survey, the rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 3.34 percent (0.7 point) for the week ending November 15. The previous low record for the 30-year fixed was 3.36 percent, set the week of October 4 this year. The 15-year fixed average also fell to a new low, dipping to 2.65 percent (0.7 point) from 2.69 percent the week before.

Two weeks after tearing up the East Coast, Hurricane Sandy rocked first-time claims for unemployment insurance. In the first full week after the storm, initial claims shot up 78,000 to 439,000, the highest level since April 2011 for the week ended November 10, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Economists expected 376,000 initial claims filings.

Foreclosure rates increased on a monthly basis in October but remain well below last year's levels, according to the latest U.S. Foreclosure Market Report from RealtyTrac. Taking a closer look at market-level data, RealtyTrac found vast disparities in foreclosure activity across the nation. At a national level, foreclosures increased 3 percent in October, but they remain 19 percent lower than they were last October. In fact, despite the monthly increase, October is the third consecutive month in which an annual decrease in foreclosure starts took place.

The housing market is slowly but surely getting back up to speed, but don't expect it to recover to peak levels, Freddie Mac says in its latest U.S. Economic and Housing Market Outlook. In the November outlook, Freddie Mac takes into account recent trends, housing indicators, shifting demographic patterns to put together a picture of what makes a ""healthy"" housing market.

FDIC put a date on the closure of the last of its satellite offices established in the wake of the financial crash. The agency's East Coast Temporary Satellite Office (ECTSO), located in Jacksonville, Florida, will close April 5, 2014.

Bank of America announced it's on track to fulfill consumer relief requirements as part of the national mortgage settlement within the first year of the three-year agreement. So far, the bank has completed or approved $15.8 billion in consumer relief for about 164,000 homeowners as of September 30. One form of consumer relief offered through the settlement is first-lien principal forgiveness, which BofA has offered to 30,000 customers, leading to $4.75 billion in principal reductions.

A specific provision in California's Homeowner Bill of Rights may have led to a surge in foreclosure cancellations, according to a report from ForeclosureRadar. Foreclosure cancellations in California spiked 62.1 percent from September to October and 36.7 percent over a one-year period, data from ForeclosureRadar revealed. The jump from September to October is the largest monthly increase since the data provider began tracking foreclosures in September 2006.

Joellen Raiti, Nationwide Title Clearing (NTC) VP and author of the company's latest white paper, says trailing documents have become a major problem for some banks, exposing them to risk and costing servicers time and money.