REO Allegiance, a leader in nationwide mortgage field services, announced Friday that it has changed its name to First Allegiance to more accurately reflect its broad areas of expertise.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Department of the Treasury released the February edition of the Obama Administration's Housing Scorecard on Friday. The report found that new home sales rose, foreclosure completion were down, and home prices remained stable.

Christy Romero, Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) announced in a press release Friday that a federal jury in New Haven has convicted Jesse C. Litvak, a registered broker-dealer and former managing director at New York investment bank Jefferies & Co., Inc., of multiple offenses involving schemes to defraud customers trading in residential mortgage-based securities (RMBS).

Wells Fargo announced its support of the American Land Title Association's (ALTA) Best Practices in its Settlement Agent Communications issued March 6, 2014. The lender said the Best Practice guidelines for sound business practices should ideally already be in place for businesses providing title and closing services for its customers.

A new study released by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland suggests that fast-tracking foreclosures on vacant properties could provide states with substantial savings. Researchers Kyle Fee and Thomas J. Fitzpatrick used two judicial states, Ohio and Pennsylvania, to show that savings from fast-tracking could save at least $24 million annually.

Benjamin Lawsky, the superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYSDFS), issued a letter to Nationstar Mortgage Holdings, acknowledging the agency "has significant concerns that the explosive growth at Nationstar and other nonbank mortgage servicers may create capacity issues that put homeowners at risk."

In a joint release on Wednesday, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Federal Reserve), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued final guidance describing supervisory expectations for stress tests. The tests will be conducted by medium-sized financial companies, "with total consolidated assets between $10 billion and $50 billion," according to the release.

Beverly M. Weber of Martin, Leigh, Laws & Fritzlen, P.C. was recognized as a Rising Star by the 2014 Women's Justice Awards (WJA), a Missouri Lawyers Weekly honor and event. Weber was nominated by the Association for Women Lawyers of Greater Kansas City, and was chosen as a Rising Star by the WJA's selection committee.

Radian Guaranty released data for primary mortgage insurance delinquencies for the month of February on Wednesday, reporting fewer loans are delinquent as of the end of the month. New insurance written for the month came in at $1.9 billion, with a beginning primary delinquent inventory of 58,782.

The Wells Fargo Economics Group released its California Economic Outlook for February, 2014. The report noted that while recovery has been slow in the past, "[T]he state has methodically made progress working through a number of major impediments, most notably the overhang of foreclosures and distressed homes left over from the housing bust."