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The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported last week that average hourly earnings increased by 12 cents from December to January ($24.63 to $24.75), but U.S. Department of Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said on Monday more wage growth is needed.

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Julián Castro is scheduled to testify before the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday, February 11, starting at 10 a.m. Eastern time.

The share of respondents in Fannie Mae's survey who said their household income is "significantly higher" than it was a year ago climbed 4 percentage points to a survey high of 29 percent, the company reported. Looking ahead, 48 percent said they expect their finances to improve in the next year, also a survey high. Overall, 44 percent of Americans said they believe the economy is on the right track, an increase of 3 percentage points and only a few points less than those saying the economy is headed the wrong way (49 percent). That optimism spurred 66 percent of those surveyed to say they would buy a home if they had to move, a jump from 61 percent at the end of 2014.

Connecticut-based mortgage industry information and services provider Clayton Holdings has announced the hiring of John Guy as senior managing director of business development.

Nationwide bankruptcy filings dropped by more than 13 percent year-over-year in January, continuing a five-year trend, according to AACER bankruptcy data reported by Epiq Systems. The total number of bankruptcies filed in the United States for January was 59,037, marking the fifth January in a row that bankruptcy filings declined year-over-year. January's filing total represented a 13.5 percent decrease from January 2014, when 68,271 bankruptcies were filed, and a decline of 42.6 percent from their highest total for any January, which was 102,835 reached in January 2010.

A federal judge in New Jersey dismissed most of a lawsuit filed by Prudential Financial Inc. against Bank of America which claimed the North Carolina-based megabank sold them more than $1.9 billion worth of toxic mortgage-backed securities in the run-up to the financial crisis, according to multiple media reports on Friday.

Ongoing regulatory scrutiny along with allegations of servicing violations have resulted in the removal of Ocwen Financial from Morningstar Credit Ratings' Alert and the lowering of the Atlanta-based servicer's operational risk assessment rankings, according to an announcement from Morningstar on Friday.

Counsel's Corner is an ongoing series in which DS News talks with default servicing attorneys around the country about the most pressing issues facing the default servicing industry. This installment features Neil Sherman, Vice President and Managing Attorney of Detroit-based law firm Schneiderman & Sherman.

ACES Risk Management (ARMCO), a Florida-based provider of Web-based quality control software for the mortgage industry, announced this week the addition of new enhancements to its Web Audit Technology via integration with analytics software leader Tableau Software.

The unemployment rate, which is measured from a separate household survey, ticked up slightly to 5.7 percent from December's 5.6 percent, reflecting an increase in the number of Americans looking for work. After accounting for annual adjustments to population controls, BLS said the civilian labor force rose by 703,000 in January, bringing the labor force participation rate back up to a still-low 62.9 percent.