Government

Freddie Mac is at it again offering another round of the multifamily mortgage-backed securities known as K Certificates. The company expects to offer approximately $538 million in K Certificates (K-AIV Certificates), which are backed by 19 multifamily properties owned by affiliates of Apartment Investment & Management Co. The K Certificates are expected to price this week and settle on or around June 9.

Three is not a crowd at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia who is promoting three employees. [IMAGE] [COLUMN_BREAK] The Philadelphia Fed promoted Constance H. Wallgren to vice president and chief examinations officer in the bank├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ós supervision, regulation and credit (SRC) department.

At the recent conference held by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, implementation issues surrounding the Dodd-Frank Act were prominent, with Wayne Abernathy, executive vice president of the American Bankers Association, telling attendees that numerous delays in deploying the provisions of the bill are likely to continue. Abernathy stated that regulators have already extended 30 out of 30 deadlines for implementation, in several areas such as risk-retention rules, GSE dissolution, and loan officer compensation.

Lender reaction at the recent 47th annual Chicago Federal Reserve Conference was largely negative on the current proposal to alter the selection process for members of the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee. The new system would allow Congress to choose members of the committee instead of continuing to use regional Fed officials selected by the private sector to determine committee membership. The bill introduced last week, is viewed as an attempt to move power away from the regional Fed system and the private sector.

As the Dodd-Frank Act moves slowly to implementation, banking officials speaking at the recent Chicago Federal Reserve Bank's annual conference pointed to the need for continued monitoring of financial services markets to mitigate the risk of future economic crisis. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke called for regulators to focus on two key types of risk: gaps in regulatory coverage and risks that vary with the economy, such as the buildup of lending leverage.

The National Credit Union Administration which is now controlled by Federal regulators, is threatening to sue several investment banks unless they refund more than $50 billion in securities that were purchased by the five wholesale credit unions that make up the organization.

As expected, Allstate has filed against Citigroup and Deutsche Bank AG Allstate is suing over accusations that the banks covered up risks on more than $385 million in mortgage securities purchased by the insurance company.