News

The Federal Reserve released a statement today announcing that Mark Bialek will head up internal investigations as inspector general of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection.

The Senate Banking Committee convened a hearing Tuesday to address concerns that large mortgage lenders continue to edge out their smaller rivals. Lawmakers called the current mortgage system unsustainable.

On Tuesday attorneys general from 48 states and territories aired their concerns about federal overreach in a letter to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, charging that the regulatory agency will sidestep state consumer financial laws and misinterpret the intent of the Dodd-Frank Act if it moves forward with a controversial preemption rule. The letter claimed that existing rules put the OCC in conflict with Dodd-Frank, state consumer financial laws, and past Supreme Court cases.

On Tuesday popular car insurance company Esurance announced a deal with Security First Insurance Company that allows the two to offer homeowners' insurance in Florida. The partnership arrives on the heels of a Quinnipiac University poll that held a resounding 63 percent of Floridians felt that property insurance is hard to come by, with about three-fourths of those agreeing on the inaccessibility of property insurance.

Following 97 months in federal custody for his role in a high-level money laundering scheme, Thomas Kontogiannis still faces heat in the courts, as he awaits sentencing in July for the part he played in a $92 million mortgage-fraud payout between 2003 and 2007. Prosecutors accuse the former Long Island financier of "mastermind[ing] the largest mortgage origination fraud on record," staging property sales with misrepresented mortgage loans that Kontogiannis sold to lending institutions in the secondary market.

According to a recent report, Ginnie Mae issuers put up over $26 billion in mortgage-backed securities for sale on the secondary market over the course of May, reflecting a 4 percent overall decline from April. HUD released a report indicating the placement of 99.5 percent of FHA-insured loans and 97 percent of VA-backed loans in Ginnie Mae packages over the course of 2010, with an end-point in September. Ginnie Mae also securitized $770 million worth in FHA-insured reverse mortgages and $1.6 billion in multifamily loans over the course of May.

Home sales in Massachusetts fell by more than 25 percent over May in comparison with rates from the same month last year, while home prices shot up, interrupting a five-month-long trend, according to The Warren Group.

In a statement released Tuesday, national real estate brokerage firm "Atlantic & Pacific Real Estate, LLC announced that it made Robert Watson VP and regional manager of its network of real estate agents in California's Orange and San Diego counties. An accomplished broker in the Orange County area, Watson will help further agent and training education with the Atlantic & Pacific Advance U team. The statement held that the company considered Watson's experience with social networking technologies and information when it made the decision.

Flagstar Bancorp found itself pitted against bond insurer Assured Guaranty on Monday as the latter sought $82.4 million in damages against it on charges that the Midwestern bank breached the warranties on its home equity loans, according to court documents.

Signaling new flak in ongoing exchanges between members of Congress and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, two House committees addressed Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner in a letter last week with concerns about Treasury Department adviser Elizabeth Warren's refusal to unveil her involvement with mortgage servicers and state authorities in their negotiations. The letter is the second to address widespread concerns about the CFPB's dealings, marking a defensive posture for the agency.