The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) submitted its fourth quarter report to Congress this week detailing actions the GSEs have taken to prevent unnecessary foreclosures. The report shows a 76 percent increase in loan modifications by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from the third to fourth quarters of 2008.

In a rare television interview with CBS’ 60 Minutes:http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/60minutes/main3415.shtml this weekend, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told the American public that the U.

Santa Ana, California’s RealEC Technologies Inc., a provider of collaborative mortgage network solutions that is majority-owned by Lender Processing Services, today announced that it has surpassed a milestone of more than 42 million real estate orders processed through its network, since the company was founded in 1998.

Wingspan Portfolio Advisors, LLC, a Dallas-based mortgage servicer specializing in severely delinquent loans, has announced the appointment of two mortgage servicing executives to key management positions.

Two Texas companies, SigniaDocs, a provider of electronic mortgage services, and World Wide Notary, a provider of electronic notarization, announced on Monday that they have integrated their platforms to support eSignatures and eNotarizations for any mortgage document or document set.

The Twinsburg, Ohio-based law firm of Reimer, Lorber & Arnovitz Co., L.P.A. has changed its name to Reimer, Arnovitz, Chernek & Jeffrey Co., L.P.A., effective March 1, 2009. The firm said in a press statement, The change is simply a name change and no other changes have taken place.

Los Angeles’ LMP Financial Group and UnderwritersTrust Transaction & Risk Management LLP in London recently announced an agreement to co-market risk management, due diligence, and underwriting advisory services for commercial real estate and mortgage-backed vehicles.

The Mortgage Asset Research Institute (MARI), a LexisNexis service, released a new report at the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA’s) National Fraud Issues Conference in Las Vegas on Monday.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) said it will delay the planned implementation of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) required use:http://www.hud.gov/news/requireduserule.

ForeclosureRadar, which tracks every California foreclosure and provides daily auction updates, issued its monthly California Foreclosure Report for February 2009 on Thursday. The company said that Notices of Default have increased 21.