Government

A federal judge has ruled that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., is liable for facing certain legal claims that FDIC-insured JPMorgan Chase inherited from its 2008 acquisition of Washington Mutual, according to media reports. JPMorgan acquired the failing Seattle-based bank for $1.88 billion in 2008 during the onset of the financial crisis, after the Office of Thrift Supervision seized Washington Mutual and appointed the FDIC as receiver.

In the wake of the recent storm disaster that swept through Texas and Oklahoma in late May, Freddie Mac, one of the largest investors in residential mortgages, announced today in a press release that it will provide disaster relief polices for eligible residents. These policies are being offered to homeowners whose home were damaged or destroyed due to the incessant storms that affected these areas.

Democratic Members on the Senate Banking and House Financial Services Committees announced in a press release that new legislation will provide targeted relief to small financial institutions and protection for consumers. This legislation was introduced in both the House of Representatives and the United States Senate and has the unanimous support of Democratic Members of the respective committees.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced on Wednesday morning that a grace period will be in effect for those servicers attempting to comply in good faith with the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure (TRID) requirements that are scheduled to go into effect August 1. While the CFPB did not push back the August 1 implementation date of the rule, it attempted to ease some of those concerns on Wednesday by saying it would take into account a company's good faith effort to comply with the rule after it goes into effect.

The Department of Justice’s Office of Public Affairs recently reported that First Tennessee Bank N.A., headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, has agreed to pay $212.5 million to resolve allegations of its violation of the False Claims Act that stems from Federal Housing Administration-insured (FHA) mortgage lending. Allegedly, First Tennessee Bank knowingly originated and underwrote mortgage loans insured by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) FHA that did not meet applicable requirements, the Justice Department reported.

Newbold Advisors has expanded its decade-strong regulatory and compliance support practice with new TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure (TRID) service offerings, according to a recent company press release. As the August 1, 2015 deadline quickly approaches, Newbold intends to assist lenders in supporting the transition to the new rules, finalize new process implementation, create contingency plans, and resolve any post-implementation issues.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has named Richard K. Green, University of Southern California Lusk Center for Real Estate director, as a senior advisor for housing finance, according to an announcement from HUD. Green, one of the nation's pre-eminent housing economists, will replace Edward Golding, who was named principal deputy assistant secretary with HUD at the end of March. Green's one-year appointment as senior advisor with HUD will begin on July 1.

Construction spending during April 2015 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,006.1 billion for April, 2.2 percent above March’s revised estimate of $984 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau Department of Commerce announced today.

Fannie Mae’s gross mortgage portfolio has decreased for the second consecutive month at a compound annualized rate of 17.4 percent in April, according to Fannie Mae’s April 2015 Monthly Volume Summary, released today. The GSE’s book of business decreased in April, dropping at a compound annualized rate of 2.1 percent, from $3.13 trillion in April 2014 to $3.11 trillion in April 2015, according to the summary. The book of business has only seen one positive compounded growth rate increase of 0.4 percent this year in March.

In its second of three estimates of real gross domestic product (GDP) growth for the first quarter released Friday, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) issued a downward revision of what analysts had already deemed "paltry" growth of 0.2 percent in the advance estimate for Q1 reported at the end of April. According to the BEA's second estimate for Q1, which is based on more complete source data than were available for the advance estimate, the GDP contracted at an annual rate of minus 0.7 percent.