The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) announced on Tuesday that Michael Fratantoni has been named VP of single family research and policy development. Fratantoni will be responsible for managing MBA’s policy development research for issues impacting single-family lending.

The Treasury Department released its February lending survey on Wednesday. The study covers the top 21 institutions who have received a government investment through the Capital Purchase Program (CAP).

The Virginia Legislature has passed House Bill 2150, which would allow lenders and servicers to register their foreclosed properties, for the purpose of property preservation tracking, with the Mortgage Electronic Registration System (MERS) instead of using individual municipal registration databases.

Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller filed lawsuits in Boone, Clark, Delaware, Grant, and Marion counties last week against five foreclosure consultant companies. The lawsuits filed cite violations of three state laws including the Deceptive Consumer Sales Act, Credit Services Organizations Act, and the Mortgage Rescue Protection Fraud Act.

Foreclosure floodgates may soon give way as the nation’s leading mortgage lenders lift their recent foreclosure suspensions and move those borrowers that are ineligible for federal programs on through the property repossession process.

The recent boom in refinances as homeowners try to cash in on record-low mortgage rates has been a pleasant surprise for Cranbury, New Jersey-based Visionet Systems. The company says that its process outsourcing business doubled during the first quarter of this year as a result of the surge in home loan refinances.

Ocwen Financial Corporation, a subprime mortgage servicer headquartered in West Palm Beach, Florida, announced on Monday that it is the first servicer in the country to begin executing loan modifications under the Treasury Department’s new Home Affordable Modification program.

ForeclosureRadar, which tracks every California foreclosure and provides daily auction updates on its Web site, issued its March Foreclosure Report for the Golden State on Tuesday. According to the company’s market data, foreclosure notices hit a new record level, while foreclosure sales in the state dropped last month.

President Barack Obama is expected to name Fannie Mae’s chief executive Herb Allison to head the government’s $700 billion bank bailout program, according to a report published Tuesday by the Wall Street Journal:http://online.

Tiffany Skaife has joined the Texas law firm of Mackie Wolf & Zientz, P.C. as REO closing manager and will lead the firm’s state-wide REO closing department. Prior to joining Mackie Wolf & Zientz, Skaife served as REO manager, title and escrow for Countrywide Home Loans where she managed several title curative and closing teams at two of its Dallas-area servicing sites.