Government

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reached a settlement with the former CEO of IndyMac Bancorp, Michael W. Perry, on September 28.

Experts across the country wasted no time in responding to Friday's unemployment report, and the responses ranged from celebration to healthy skepticism. According to a report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the unemployment rate in September fell to a 44-month low of 7.8 percent. The White House pointed to the data as a sign of a recovering economy.

Another major bank took a hit as the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) filed a lawsuit against Credit Suisse Securities over the sale of faulty mortgage-backed securities (MBS). Credit Suisse isn't the only one that's been targeted by NCUA-the administration has also gone after JPMorgan Securities, Goldman Sachs, Wachovia, and Barclay's, to name a few.

On Friday, Treasury released the Making Home Affordable Program report, which details performance from the nine largest servicers participating in the Making Home Affordable (MHA) program. The most recent August servicer report provided data on servicers’ ability to reach out to delinquent homeowners who are at least 60 days behind to inform them of the program. In addition, the report revealed servicers' performance when converting eligible trials into permanent modifications.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is asking for the public's input on a white paper it released Thursday containing proposals for a common securitization platform and a model Pooling and Servicing Agreement.

The nation's unemployment rate fell to 7.8 percent in September–the lowest level since January 2009—as the economy added a below-average 114,000 jobs, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)reported Friday. The 0.3 percentage point improvement in the unemployment rate is the largest since January 2011, when the unemployment rate dropped from 9.4 percent to 9.1 percent.

Neither Barack Obama or Mitt Romney has seemed particularly enthusiastic about discussing housing on the national stage, but viewers of Wednesday's debates got to see a brief skirmish between the two candidates about regulation for Wall Street and the mortgage industry. While some viewers complained about debate's narrow focus, they were at least given reassurance that housing hasn't been eclipsed completely by other issues.

IHS Global Insight took a closer look at the ""Show Me State"" as part of its ongoing analysis of 12 swing states.

First-time claims for unemployment insurance edged up by 4,000 to 367,000 for the week ended September 29, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The previous week's report was revised upward to 363,000 first-time claims from the originally reported 359,000.

When the September employment situation report is released Friday, one number will loom large, and it won't be the number of new payroll jobs, expected by economists surveyed by Bloomberg to be about 113,000, and it won't be the unemployment rate, expected to be 8.1 percent. Instead, it will be 386,000, which is the number of jobs added to the nation's payrolls, not by employers, but by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in its annual ""benchmarking"" of payroll data.