Government

Joseph A. Jiampietro, senior adviser to FDIC chairman Sheila C. Bair will leave the FDIC on August 13. Jiampietro has served as the senior adviser since March 2009, before that working as managing director of the financial institutions group at J.P. Morgan.

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has received congressional approval to raise borrowers' annual premiums for single-family mortgage insurance. House Resolution 5891 passed the Senate late Wednesday, after clearing the House last Friday. It now heads to the president for final sign-off. The bill allows FHA to increase the statutory cap of the annual fee charged for federal mortgage insurance three-fold, from 0.55 percent to 1.55 percent, but FHA Commissioner David Stevens has indicated that he may not need to raise premiums to the maximum.

Fannie Mae has issued a media bulletin with details of a property auction in South Florida, a market that continues to struggle with high numbers of home repossessions and a backlog of foreclosure cases. The nation's largest mortgage company will auction off 100 Fannie Mae-owned REOs in Florida's Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties on August 14th.

WR Starkey Mortgage has agreed to pay $4.7 million to North Carolina homeowners exploited by a scheme related to the sale and financing of overpriced manufactured and modular homes sold by Phoenix Housing Group, Inc. In conjunction with the attorney general, the North Carolina Office of the Commissioner of Banks announced that the company will pay $26,000 to each of the 171 victimized homeowners.

State housing finance agencies in North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, and South Carolina have been given the green light to use $600 million in federal funding to implement their own foreclosure prevention programs. These five states were designated as some of the nation's hardest-hit housing markets because of high unemployment -- local rates above 12 percent -- and concentrated areas of severe economic distress. The Treasury says another round of state grants is in the works, with $2 billion more allocated for local housing programs.

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has just $3.5 billion in its capital reserve account. The decline, though, is the result of a shuffling of funds. FHA moved $9.8 billion from its capital reserves to its financing account, the fund used to cover insurance claim payouts and losses. The transfer bumped this loss reserve account up to $29.6 billion and suggests that the FHA may be preparing for another wave of defaults and mortgage insurance claims, although so far this year, claims are coming in well below projections made at the end of 2009.

Bank of America has agreed to another hefty lawsuit settlement to smooth over charges brought against Countrywide. A U.S. district judge in Los Angeles has approved BofA's payout of $600 million to Countrywide investors who claim the lender wasn't forthcoming with disclosures about its business of making low-quality, high-risk loans. Countrywide's third-party auditor, KPMG, also agreed to pay $24 million. It's the largest shareholder settlement awarded out of the subprime mortgage meltdown.

Despite a continued crackdown, mortgage fraud is still a major cause of concern within the industry. In fact, according to the 2009 mortgage loan fraud study just released by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the number of mortgage fraud suspicious activity reports (SARs) filed last year edged up 4 percent compared to the previous 12 months. Mortgage SARs were most prevalent in the Los Angeles and Miami metro areas, both of which reported more than 10,000 filings in 2009.

Fannie Mae has rolled out a new interactive online resource for homeowners struggling with their mortgage payments. It's KnowYourOptions.com, and it's designed to be a virtual one-stop-shop for anyone facing financial hardship and in need of foreclosure assistance. Eight months in the making, the site offers tools and guidance for refinancing, repayment plans, forbearance, modifications, Fannie Mae's Deed-for-Lease program, short sales, and deeds-in-lieu.

Deceptive mortgage relief marketers continue to prey on financially distressed homeowners, but one such company has been stopped in its tracks. Home Assure, LLC, has been charged by the Federal Trade Commission for deceiving consumers with promises that it could save their homes from foreclosure. To settle these charges, the company must refund customers $2.4 million, and it can no longer sell mortgage loan modification or foreclosure relief services.