Government

About four years after the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) directed the GSEs to develop a uniform collateral data portal, the Office of the Inspector General of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA OIG) finds the portal is not being used to its potential, and the GSEs continue to purchase loans with red flags.

The Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) announced Tuesday that Robert Ilunga, of Naugatuck, Connecticut, was sentenced last Friday to 18 months in federal prison for operating a multimillion-dollar mortgage fraud scheme. Ilunga will serve three years of supervised release upon his release from prison.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Tuesday, Morgan Stanley revealed it has reached a $1.25 billion agreement in principle with FHFA to resolve pending mortgage-backed securities (MBS)-related litigation. In connection with the settlement, the company announced it is recording a $150 million addition to its fourth-quarter legal reserves.

Daily banking business for the residents of Boise, Idaho will continue as usual but under a slightly different banner: Syringa Bank and its six branches were shuttered over the weekend, leading to an FDIC-insured handover to Sunwest Bank from Irvine, California.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a new report detailing a number of servicing practices that “continued to plague consumers throughout 2013.” The report covers supervision work completed between July and October 2013—after its servicing rules were first published but before they actually went into effect.

The homeownership rate dropped 0.1 percentage point to 65.2 percent over the fourth quarter 2013. The rate was 0.2 percentage points lower than the rate recorded in the fourth quarter of 2012, according to the Census Bureau.

Mortgage rates closed out December—and the year—with one final, small increase, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) reported. FHFA’s national data for December shows the contract interest rate on the composite of all mortgage loans was 4.25 percent, an increase of 3 basis points from the month prior.

As part of its ongoing efforts to modernize its processes, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has granted expanded authority to lenders to accept e-Signatures on loan documents. The new policy allows e-Signatures on origination, servicing, and loss mitigation documents. Also included are those related to FHA insurance claims and REO sales contracts.

In its “advance” estimate of real gross domestic product (GDP) last quarter, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) put growth at an estimated annual rate of 3.2 percent. For all of 2013, the bureau estimates real GDP increased 1.9 percent compared to a gain of 2.8 percent in 2012.

Anyone combing through President Obama's State of the Union address hoping for a hint on housing policy in the year ahead surely came away disappointed. Instead, much of Obama's focus went toward addressing wages, which have been slow to move as home prices continue to climb higher. Also on Obama's mind Tuesday was the country's unemployment situation, which looked grim as of the end of December.