Headlines

Web-based compliant valuation management software provider Global DMS has announced that Jody Collup, the company's VP of marketing, is a recipient of the prestigious Women of Distinction award from the Providence Business Journal

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Julián Castro said the Department will continue to focus on its top priorities in 2015 with the $45 billion budget allotted as part of the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2015, despite the lack of funding for some key HUD initiatives. Among those priorities are securing sustainable housing for American individuals and families, preserving rental house assistance for poor Americans, ending homelessness, protecting people from discrimination in housing, and helping neighborhoods become more resilient from natural disasters, according to a release from HUD.

Twenty-seven senators have signed a letter addressed to Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Mel Watt asking him to reconsider the stricter membership requirements for the Federal Home Loan Banks the Agency proposed in September. The changes to membership requirements outlined by Watt in a speech at the FHLBank Director's Conference on September 2 require members to hold 1 percent of their assets in home mortgage loans (HML) on an ongoing basis, whereas the previous rule requires members to demonstrate this only at the time of their application and not at any time afterward

Two executives from Michigan-based default servicing solutions provider DLS Servicing Consultants appeared on the online radio program Capital Markets Today, hosted by Louis Amaya, on December 10 to discuss the state of affairs of Federal Housing Agency (FHA) loss mitigation in the mortgage service industry.

Freddie Mac announced Tuesday that it has obtained a number of insurance policies under its Agency Credit Insurance Structure (ACIS) in an effort to reduce risk to taxpayers in mortgage loans and further expand risk-sharing initiatives beyond capital markets. The announcement comes one week after Fannie Mae announced it was expanding the role of private capital in the mortgage market by transferring the credit risk on a pool of loans from taxpayers to a panel of domestic reinsurers.

Nationwide property preservation/inspection/REO property maintenance provider MCS Valuations (MCSV), LLC, has strengthened its management team to emphasize the company's focus on quality assurance and compliance, according to an announcement.

The U.S. Senate passed a bill on Tuesday night that retroactively extends 55 tax provisions, among which are allowing deductions for mortgage insurance premium interest and tax relief on forgiven mortgage debt. The tax provisions covered by the bill, known as the Tax Increase Prevention Act of 2014, expired on December 31, 2013. The bill provides for a retroactive one-year extension which expires on December 30 of this year and would be effective for those filing 2014 returns next year.

Freddie Mac predicted that 2015 will see the highest level of home sales in the U.S. since 2007 in its December 2014 U.S. Economic and Housing Market Outlook released on Tuesday.

JPMorgan Chase reported that it has provided more than half of the consumer relief required in just one year as part of a settlement with the government last year, according to a report released Tuesday. The internal review group for the New York-based megabank asserted in the third Chase Consumer Relief Update, compiled by Monitor Joseph A. Smith, Jr., that Chase has earned $2.2 billion in consumer relief credit from the period of October 1, 2013, to September 30, 2014.

New York-based equity firm Aquiline Capital Partners has signed a definitive agreement to become majority investor in Colorado's LenderLive Network, Inc.