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.

In an announcement Friday, Farmington Hills, Michigan-based Level One Bank said it has named David C. Walker as EVP and CFO of the company. In his new position, Walker will be responsible for all treasury, accounting, finance, investments, asset/liability management, information technology, real estate, and bank security matters.

The real estate market is swimming with foreclosures in states like Arizona and Nevada, and banks are aggressively discounting these properties at auctions to move them off the books. As a result, distressed properties are becoming some of the most sought after homes for buyers, according to Hudson & Marshall of Texas, Inc.(H&M), a foreclosure auction firm.

Steven Roark has joined Fannie Mae's National Servicing Organization (NSO) as director of the GSE's loss mitigation attorney network. Previously, Roark served as head of special servicing at Saxon Mortgage.

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.

Mortgage interest rates for 30-year fixed loans are projected to hit 6.00 percent by the end of 2010, according to the latest housing and mortgage market outlook from the PMI Group. Long-term interest rates have generally headed higher since the end of November, and PMI expects this trend to continue, with a notable increase coming in Q2 when the Federal Reserve withdraws from the secondary mortgage market.

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.

Providing an unequalled level of consultative support for clients, Trust Title Company, a national provider of title and settlement services headquartered in Maitland, Florida, helps major lenders, asset managers, and investors save time and money by identifying, negotiating, and resolving lien issues to efficiently close on the sale of non-performing loans.

In an announcement Wednesday, Fraser, Michigan-based zipLogix, the creator of the real estate contract software zipForm, said it has released zipForm 6 to its large, well-established user base.