News

In the first 30 days of the new presidential administration, the urgency to deal with the nation’s banking and financial crisis has taken top priority. The crisis has escalated and many potential resolutions are being explored – case in point, on Friday, President Obama named former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, along with 15 other leaders from various industries to an independent committee designed to help the White House combat a growing recession.

New legislation has been introduced to the U.S. Senate that would prevent financial holding companies and national banks from engaging, directly or indirectly, in real estate brokerage or real estate management activities.

In the midst of continuing media coverage surrounding U.S. banks’ failure to lend and their use of federal bailout money, Anthony J. Carfang and Cathryn R. Gregg of Chicago-based Treasury Strategies, Inc.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is expected to lay out the new administration’s comprehensive Financial Stability and Recovery Plan on Tuesday, detailing how the government will use the remainder of the $700 billion bailout money, as well as additional programs it hopes will kick-start the U.

The Texas Bankers Association (TBA), the largest and oldest state banking association in the nation, has expanded its endorsement of Wolters Kluwer Financial Services’ regulatory compliance and risk management solutions to include several of the company’s mortgage compliance documentation solutions.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), regulator of the nation’s GSEs and the more than $6.3 trillion in mortgage funding they supply, released its November Foreclosure Prevention Report today.

According to a new report released by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) this week, pending home sales increased at the end of 2008, as more buyers took advantage of improved affordability conditions.

Freehold, New Jersey-based First Equity Capital, LLC has established a private equity fund to buy pools of non-performing mortgage notes in an effort to stem the tide of foreclosures and delinquencies.

President Barack Obama named the members of his new Economic Recovery Advisory Board on Friday – a team that he says will bring with it fresh ideas that go beyond the walls of Washington. The group of outside advisers will offer independent advice to the White House to help the administration craft an effective response to the nation’s growing recession.

Fourth quarter 2008 home prices declined for the eighth consecutive quarter, and according to a Zillow Home Value Index, the 11.6 percent decline cost American homeowners a total of $1.4 trillion in home value, bringing the total drop in value for 2008 to $3.