Government

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) unveiled a new tool Friday aimed at making Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data more user-friendly.

A new report from the Office of the Inspector General of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA OIG) finds the GSEs continue to purchase loans with red flags. After being directed to develop a uniform collateral data portal to assist in quality control, FHFA OIG says both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac made billions in purchases last year despite warnings from the portal regarding underwriting standards, property valuations, and even the state of appraisers' licenses.

Mortgage Master's Jimmy Yerman is moving up in the world. The super-regional mortgage bank named the 23-year industry veteran as its new mid-Atlantic regional manager.

According to the government's latest data, total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 113,000 last month, adding more bleak numbers to December's barely revised growth of 75,000. The unemployment rate edged down slightly to 6.6 percent. Since October, the jobless rate has fallen more than half a percentage point, largely thanks to declines in the number of people counted as being part of the labor force. There's a little bit of good news, though.

In practice, Fannie and Freddie have dominated the mortgage finance market, prompting lawmakers from both ends of the political spectrum to take action.

Morgan Stanley is the latest company to make peace with the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) over alleged misrepresentation of bad securities sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

National Real Tax Tracking (NRTT), a nationwide real estate tax management firm headquartered in Chicago, announced the promotion of Kelly Houseman-Hebert to managing director.

The Justice Department and JPMorgan both announced Tuesday that the bank will pay $614 million in restitution for violations of the False Claims Act. The government claims that starting as early as 2002, the firm knowingly originated and underwrote non-compliant loans submitted for insurance coverage and guarantees by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). As a consequence, the DoJ says FHA and VA ""incurred substantial losses when unqualified loans failed.""

Churchill Mortgage announced the opening of its first brick and mortar location in Missouri.

A number of "unfair and deceptive" servicing practices "continued to plague consumers throughout 2013," the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) says in a recent report. "Taking action against mortgage servicing practices that harm consumers is a key priority for the CFPB," Director Richard Cordray said. "Especially under the detailed protections of our new rules, we expect services to clean up their act and provide responsible customer service."