Government

A New York judge has ruled that Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. (MERS) does not have the right to transfer mortgages on behalf of its members, meaning it does not have the right to file foreclosures on behalf of lenders. The company has recently been under fire for the practice, but the company defended its actions saying that borrowers are required to sign documents stating that MERS can assume rights and responsibilities on behalf of creditors.

Rowell Auctions, Inc. has announced the hiring of Douglas G. Dennison as national sales coordinator for the firm. Dennison has 20 years of auction experience and has specialized in large real estate government auctions throughout the country. He has served as auction project manager for the FDIC, U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), U.S. Marshals Service, Small Business Administration (SBA), Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC), and U.S. bankruptcy auctions in more than 30 states.

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) is wasting no time putting at least one of the Obama administration's housing finance reforms into place. The agency announced this week that it is implementing a new premium structure for FHA-insured mortgage loans. The agency is increasing its annual mortgage insurance premium by a quarter of a percentage point on all 30- and 15-year loans. The new structure applies to new loans insured by FHA on or after April 18, 2011.

In late January it was revealed that taxpayers have spent more than $160 million defending former Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac executives in court, with $132 million of that money going to the defense of Fannie execs. This week at a congressional hearing, members of several government agencies defended the spending, claiming a refusal to cover the court costs would have been illegal. But Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine condemned the use of taxpayer dollars to defend executives he says defrauded the system and broke the rules.

Veros, a provider of collateral valuation technology, enterprise risk management, and predictive analytics, recently released a white paper titled ""Interagency Appraisal & Evaluation Guidelines: Insights into Understanding and Integrating the New Guidance."" The white paper seeks to clarify the expanded language in the guidelines issued by federal regulators last December.

Michael Barr has rejoined the nonprofit think tank the Center for American Progress (CAP) as a senior fellow. From 2009 to 2010, Barr served as the U.S. Department of the Treasury's assistant secretary for financial institutions and was a key architect of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged three former executives at IndyMac Bancorp with securities fraud for misleading investors about the lender's failing financial condition. The executives, former CEO Michael Perry and former CFOs A. Scott Keys and S. Blair Abernathy, allegedly filed false and misleading disclosures about the financial stability of IndyMac and IndyMac Bank F.S.B. and continued to sell millions of dollars in new stock. Abernathy is the only one of the three who has reached a settlement with the SEC.

State and federal regulators have shut down four more community-based lenders. This latest round of closings targeted institutions in California, Florida, Michigan, and Wisconsin, and brings the number of bank failures so far in 2011 to 18. Peoples State Bank in Hamtramck, Michigan, was the largest of last weekend's failures and the only one which carried a loss-share agreement from the FDIC.

Federal Reserve Governor Sarah Bloom Raskin says the biggest drag on the nation's economy is the absence of any substantial recovery in the housing sector. She has challenged mortgage servicers to step up to the plate and make home retention their top priority. Raskin says too many servicing practices have been developed and defended solely on the basis of ""standard industry practice"" but according to her, many practices are not only standard but ""shoddy.""

The budget proposal released Monday by the Obama administration calls for more than $3.7 trillion in spending for fiscal year 2012, and cuts of more than $1 trillion. The budget is centered around a theme of tough decisions that must be made, and the president says there must be efforts to cut or consolidate a number of programs. The proposal says the administration is committed to presenting a framework of principles that will build a new housing finance system that minimizes taxpayer exposure to financial risk.