Wolters Kluwer Financial Services announced Monday that it has completed the acquisition of Svenson, a regulatory reporting software suite for financial institutions, which is based in Austria. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Svenson was part of SmartStream, a provider of financial transaction management solutions and complements Wolters Kluwer's existing offerings for regulatory reporting and risk management.

Delinquencies and foreclosures are continuing to decline with higher concentrations among Alt-A and subprime loans, according to the latest Mortgage Market Monitor from Lender Processing Services (LPS). Foreclosures are down 31 percent year-over-year in July, while delinquencies are down 9 percent, according to LPS data. Both delinquencies and foreclosures declined over the 12-month period among all types of loans, except Alt-A and subprime loans.

Stewart Lender Services announced Tuesday that it has acquired key assets of the due diligence and credit risk management firm Allonhill. Stewart will retain all Allonhill personnel as well as Allonhill's headquarter facility in Denver and the technology developed by the Allonhill team. The acquisition strengthens Stewarts offerings by adding due diligence, loan quality reviews, compliance solutions, and servicer performance management to its suite of products provided to the mortgage servicer and investment communities.

[ca_audio url_mp3='http://blogtalk.vo.llnwd.net/o23/show/5/363/show_5363349.mp3' css_class='codeart-google-mp3-player' autoplay='false' download='false' html5='false']Rob Clare is Senior Vice President of Client Development for Banc of Manhattan Capital based in Woodland Hills, California. Centered in Chicago, Rob has been in the mortgage and real estate industry since 1987 and ...

Mortgage Insurance Companies of America (MICA) reported its members issued 50,575 policies to start the year's second half, up from 49,666 in June and 39,192 in July 2012. Dollar volume of primary new insurance written totaled $13 billion, marking the fifth straight month of gains. (Despite a decline in policies issued in June, dollar volume still saw an increase to $12.3 billion). After falling in June, the number of private mortgage insurance applications ticked up in July, climbing to 53,502--indicating another potential increase in activity in the near future.

MERSCORP Holdings, Inc. announced another favorable ruling in a recording lawsuit from two Minnesota Counties. The U.S. District Court in Minnesota dismissed claims from Ramsey and Hennepin Counties alleging MERSCORP violated Minnesota law by not recording mortgage assignments with county recorders.

At the end of the classic ""Miracle on 34th Street,"" Fred Gailey—fresh from proving department store Santa Kris Kringle is the Santa Claus—muses aloud, ""Maybe I didn't do such a wonderful thing after all"" when (spoiler alert) he spots Kringle's cane in a vacant, for-sale house his soon-to-be stepdaughter Susie has dreamed of. Perhaps critics of sequester may not have been doing such a ""wonderful thing"" when they argued that across-the-board cuts would have a crippling effect on the nation's economy because of the importance of government spending's ripple effect. Those critics, of course, had statistics on their side.

Following the release of the revised Qualified Residential Mortgage (QRM) rule from six federal agencies, several analysts offered insight into how the revisions might benefit or impede progress in the mortgage market. Fitch Ratings believes adopting a QRM standard that mirrors the QM definition will trigger more activity for the jumbo origination and securitization market. Capital Economics, though, noted the QM and QRM proposals aren't much help when it comes to the long-term goal of reducing the presence of the GSEs in the mortgage market.

Home sales in Massachusetts remained strong in July despite rising interest rates, data from The Warren Group revealed. Sales for single-family homes rose 18 percent compared to July 2012 to 5,941--the highest level since June 2006, the Warren Group reported.

Confidence among developers of multifamily housing units is soaring, according to survey results released Thursday by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). ""Multifamily developer confidence is currently at an all-time high according to our survey results, and we expect to see that continue for the foreseeable future,"" said W. Dean Henry, chairman of NAHB's Multifamily Leadership Board. NAHB's Multifamily Production Index rose nine points over the second quarter of this year, reaching its highest rating on record--61.