Government

In her first monthly report as California Monitor, Katherine Porter described the servicers' efforts to reform their practices before the October 2 deadline outlined in the national mortgage settlement. Porter's first evaluation examined the practice of dual tracking. The companies in the settlement were given 180 days to reform their dual tracking procedures, in addition to more than 300 additional servicing standard requirements.

In a written speech addressing Minority Depository Institutions, Thomas J. Curry, Comptroller of the Currency, spoke on the important role of minority-owned banks while addressing concerns regarding new laws and regulations. Curry discussed the new Basel capital requirements, which are expected to pose challenges for community banks due to the higher capital requirements.

Mortgage applications saw increased activity in the last week of September, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported. Mortgage application volume increased 16.6 percent in the week ending September 28, according to MBA's Mortgage Composite Index. Meanwhile, the Refinance Index increased 20 percent from a week before to its highest recorded level since April 2009.

The nation's five largest mortgage servicers had 180 days to implement the 320 servicing standards outlined in the settlement reached with the U.S. Department of Justice and 49 state attorneys general. The standards address such areas as borrower communication, single point of contact, training for loss mitigation staff, and document execution related to foreclosure actions. And as described by the attorneys general's own negotiating committee, to put all the required changes in place involved ""a massive undertaking.""

Three men were arrested Monday for bank fraud connected to the fall of New York's Park Avenue Bank in 2010, the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Trouble Asset Relief Program announced. Wilbur Anthony Huff, Matthew L. Morris, and Allen Reichman were presented in federal court for their alleged roles in the collapse of the Manhattan bank.

As part of Bank of America's deal in the national mortgage settlement, the bank announced Friday it plans on offering full forgiveness for second liens to certain homeowners. The bank is in the process of mailing about 150,000 letters to pre-qualified homeowners with offers to wipe out their second liens.

New York attorney general and co-chair of RMBS Working Group Eric T. Schneiderman announced a lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase Bank, JPMorgan Securities, LLC (formerly known as Bear Stearns & Co.), and EMC Mortgage LLC (formerly EMC Mortgage Corporation). Schneiderman's complaint alleges that Bear Stearns led investors to believe that the quality of loans in its mortgage-backed securities had been carefully evaluated and would be monitored. The complaint further alleges that as a result of Bear Stearns' and the other defendants' negligence, investors suffered cumulative losses of approximately $22.5 billion.

The Cogsville Group, LLC picked up 94 Fannie Mae foreclosures in Chicago through the Federal Housing Finance Agency's REO Initiative. The Cogsville Group is a private equity firm based in New York with a focus on distressed sales. The FHFA said in a release that all properties purchased through the program were sold near or above market value. The 94 properties sold included 111 units, 68 of which were occupied. FHFA also stated Fannie Mae will continue with bulk sales in markets with a strong demand for rental housing and a surplus of REO properties.

Home prices continued to reclaim lost ground in September, up 3.6 percent annually with increases recorded for every corner of the country, Clear Capital reported Tuesday. Improvements have been so strong, in fact, the real estate valuation firm says yearly growth is forecast to shake off winter's chill and continue through the first quarter of 2013. That is, if federal lawmakers can keep from squashing consumer confidence and agree on a resolution to the looming ""fiscal cliff"" that awaits at year-end without letting market uncertainties fester all the way up until the deadline.

A California man was placed under arrest Friday on a complaint charging him with mail fraud for running a multistate scam that bilked homeowners out of more than $3.1 million. Alan David Tikal of Brentwood, California, was arrested at his home for a complaint that he scammed more than 1,000 homeowners out of millions of dollars in a fraudulent foreclosure rescue scheme.