Government

If all of Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's borrowers paying interest rates that are higher than the median rate were to refinance at 4 percent, the savings would total $63 billion. While such an option would not bring the total $63 billion in savings to fruition, Moody's chief economist, Mark Zandi, says ""even a fraction would be a big plus."" According to Zandi, the single most effective policy move for the housing market would be to facilitate more mortgage refinancing.

The Texas Department of Banking and the FDIC seized control of First International Bank in Plano, Texas, over the weekend. The closing is expected to cost the FDIC's insurance fund $53.8 million and brings the agency's failed-bank tally to 74 for the 2011 calendar year. The FDIC brokered a deal with Houston, Texas' American First National Bank to take over the failed institution and purchase essentially all of its assets.

A former Countrywide employee is now behind bars and being forced to pay $1.2 million in restitution for stealing and dispersing confidential customer information, including social security numbers. A U.S. district judge sentenced 39-year-old Pasadena resident Rene Rebollo to eight months in prison and 10 months in a community corrections facility. Rebollo, who served as a senior financial analyst in Countrywide's subprime mortgage division, pled guilty to the charges.

As delinquencies and impending foreclosures rose, New England states responded with foreclosure prevention programs, generally falling into one of two categories: foreclosure mediation and financial assistance. The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston examined these efforts to determine ways other states can learn from them. Five of the six New England states have their own mediation programs, and Massachusetts created a program allowing negotiation without a mediator.

Nevada has held the number one spot in state foreclosure rankings for 56 consecutive months. In fact, for the month of August, RealtyTrac reports one in every 118 Nevada homes received a foreclosure filing. While foreclosures cannot always be prevented, the state is taking steps to protect homeowners facing foreclosure. A new ""Foreclosure Fraud Reform"" law will go into effect October 1. It lays out new rules for the recording of foreclosure documents and mandates the foreclosing party prove chain of title.

Data released Thursday by a federal banking regulator provides a snapshot of mortgage performance over the second quarter of this year. Both early stage and serious delinquencies increased slightly compared to the previous three-month period, as did completed foreclosures, while new modification actions fell nearly 20 percent. Perhaps the most troubling result in the report is post-modification performance. Of loans modified since the beginning of 2008, nearly half have since gone delinquent.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has signed off on several headline-grabbing arrangements between major lenders and the GSEs to reconcile loan repurchase claims. The results of an investigation released this week, however, indicate approval was made in haste. In response, FHFA has put the brakes on any future repurchase settlements pending further examination of the process in place to assess the true cost of such deals for taxpayer-funded Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Servicers completed about 56,000 proprietary permanent loan modifications in the month of August - similar to their July efforts. Most of these modifications included reduced principal and interest payments and fixed interest rates for five years or more, according to HOPE NOW data released Wednesday. While proprietary loan modifications remained level, foreclosure starts increased 18 percent, rising from 185,000 in July to 218,000 in August.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is seeking public comment on two new compensation structures for mortgage servicing. The agency says the current model was not designed for today's market conditions. After meetings and discussions with various stakeholders, FHFA has put forth two alternatives. One proposal would establish a reserve account within the current servicing compensation structure. The other proposal would create a new ""Fee for Service"" model.

With the deadline for the Emergency Homeowners' Loan Program (EHLP) just a couple days away, HUD says it does not expect to meet the program's original goal of helping 30,000 homeowners, even after two deadline extensions. According to a HUD spokesperson, the main obstacle stems from the ""statutory requirements of the program and the statutory time limits."" The agency says approximately 75 percent of the applicants rejected did not meet the criteria of the program.