News

U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff criticized the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) $285 million proposal to Citigroup to settle allegations related to its mortgage trading, and said he will need time to consider the deal. Rakoff questioned several of the settlement's terms, including the agreed-upon monetary penalty. Rakoff is particularly leery of this condition because the SEC has reportedly reached settlements with Citigroup in the past after which the bank allegedly broke the agreements through security law violations.

Lawmakers are outraged at the amount of bonus pay awarded to executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac...and they're not stopping with hot-tempered rhetoric. Rep. Spencer Bachus, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, has scheduled a committee vote for next Tuesday on a bill that would suspend the compensation packages awarded to the GSEs' top executives. Sens. Jay Rockefeller and John McCain say they plan to follow suit with a similar bill in their own chamber.

IndiSoft, a technology development firm that focuses on systems for the default services industry, has promoted Kapil Dhakad from project manager to VP of custom solutions. Dhakad is now responsible for ensuring that product configurations are tailored to meet the specific needs of each client. Dhakad joined IndiSoft in 2004 as a team leader and spearheaded implementing the company's flagship RxOffice platform for several clients. He became project manager in 2007.

Foreclosure filings in October rose 7 percent from the previous month, RealtyTrac said Thursday. Including default notices, scheduled auctions, and bank repossessions, filings were reported on 230,678 U.S. properties in October. That's down nearly 31 percent from a year earlier, when servicers began putting the brakes on foreclosure actions due to paperwork issues. But RealtyTrac has documented a rise in filings for three consecutive months now - a sign that servicers are working through the backlog of cases that have been delayed.

RE/MAX has deployed CoreLogic's HomeStandings technology, which is configured with a reporting component that the companies say can help agents quickly identify potentially profitable foreclosed properties that are eligible for resale. The HomeStandings report combines property, neighborhood, and market characteristics to provide a complete local understanding of a home's value, marketability, and rent potential. HomeStandings then generates a grade for each property, enabling RE/MAX agents to assess the overall purchase quality of a home.

As Americans consider the best candidates for the 2012 presidential and congressional elections, housing is at the forefront of the debate for many. About 70 percent of Americans say a candidate's position on housing could sway their vote, according to a survey released by Move, Inc. However, Americans differ in their views of what the housing market needs most. The survey found 30.9 percent of Americans believe the next president's priority for his or her first 100 days in office should be helping homeowners avoid foreclosures.

In the second quarter of 2011, single-family home prices fell 5.9 percent on an annual basis, according to the latest national Fiserv Case-Shiller home price indexes released Wednesday. This continuation of the double-dip that started in 2010 is not the end, according to Fiserv. In fact, the company predicts prices will continue to fall into the coming year -- dropping another 3.6 percent by the first half of 2012. However, Fiserv does see a light at the end of the tunnel.

The nation's largest mortgage company says it lost $5.1 billion during the third quarter of this year. That combined with a $2.5 billion dividend payment to Treasury for past bailout money left Fannie Mae with a $7.8 billion hole to fill. Upon receipt of those funds, Fannie Mae's total debt obligation to U.S. taxpayers will be $112.6 billion. The GSE held 122,616 single-family REO properties as of the end of September, and completed 87,533 foreclosure prevention actions during the quarter.

Capsilon, a provider of cloud-based document sharing, imaging, and collaboration solutions, announced that Sheila Plunkett has been named VP of sales, responsible for spearheading business development for the San Francisco-based company. Plunkett has more than 25 years' experience in enterprise-level technology sales and marketing management. Through much of her career, she has worked with clients in the financial services and mortgage industries.

The Default Attorney Group (DAG), a consortium of creditors' rights law firms from across the United States, recently announced that Claims Recovery Financial Services (CRFS) has joined its ranks as an associate member. CRFS delivers post-foreclosure claim processing management solutions and is based in Albion, New York. The company's products are designed to maximize the recovery of financial advancements from the servicing of a mortgage loan.