Government

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) said Wednesday that it is raising homebuyers' up-front costs for mortgage insurance, tripling downpayment requirements for borrowers with low credit scores, and cutting seller concessions in half. The agency says the new policies will help it better manage loan risk and losses. According to FHA's latest monthly activity report, nearly 9 percent of the single-family mortgages it insures against default are at least 90 days past due.

In order to inform congressional decision-making representatives about efforts to address problems in the mortgage markets, the growing problem of poor loan performance and negative home equity in the nonprime mortgage market was addressed in a recent report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

LPS Field Services and LPS Asset Management Solutions, both divisions of Lender Processing Services, will host the South Florida Code Enforcement Summit, in cooperation with the Gold Coast chapter of the Florida Association of Code Enforcement, on Wednesday, February 17, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

In an effort to prevent foreclosures in communities across the country, Wells Fargo & Co. said it is continuing to use the federal Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) and other modifications to provide customers with mortgage payment relief. As a result, over 400,000 Wells Fargo loan customers received assistance through active trial and completed modifications in 2009.

While the Senate Banking Committee voted to back Ben Bernanke's second term as Federal Reserve chairman in December, the Senate as a whole must vote on this issue before January 31, and some are worried this looming deadline won't be met. As DSNews.

Ambac Assurance Corp., a business unit of bond insurer Ambac Financial Group Inc., has sued Credit Suisse Securities and its affiliate DLJ Mortgage Capital over mortgage-backed securities (MBS) Ambac insured in 2007. Ambac alleges the two investment companies hid information about the borrowers' ability to repay their loans, resulting in high default claims.

The banking industry may go as far as a court battle to challenge the constitutionality of President Obama's bailout tax. One of the financial industry's top lobbying groups, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), says the tax unfairly penalizes big banks. The organization has already hired a well-known Supreme Court litigator to study whether a tax on one industry to recoup government rescue dollars could be considered arbitrary and punitive.

HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan has announced a temporary policy that will lift the 90-day waiting period to obtain Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgage insurance for the purchase of a foreclosed home. FHA research has shown that acquiring, rehabilitating, and reselling foreclosed properties often takes less than 90 days. The temporary waiver will allow FHA borrowers to purchase HUD-owned, bank-owned, or properties resold through private sales as soon as they hit the market.

The FDIC is looking for a buyer for the $20 billion loan servicing portfolio it seized from AmTrust Bank last year, and the agency has chosen the investment advisory firm Milestone Merchant Partners in Washington, D.C. to manage the sale.

As receiver of the nation's collapsed banks, many of which have folded under the weight of bad real estate deals, the FDIC has amassed a vast portfolio of distressed mortgages the ones rescuing institutions didn't want when they stepped in to take over the operations and assets of the many that have made the FDIC's failed bank list.