The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced on Monday a 60-day extension for the comment period for proposed rule to revise membership requirements for Federal Home Loan Banks. FHFA gave as its reasons for extending the comment period the importance of the issues being addressed, the high interest level in the proposal, and requests from stakeholders for more time to evaluate the proposal.

Fannie Mae's chief economist, Doug Duncan, said the latest employment report supports Fannie's "forecast of solid economic growth," and is consistent with the company's September National Housing Survey, "which is expected to show a rebound in consumer expectations regarding housing after a couple of months of eroding confidence."

A ruling issued by a federal judge this week clears the way for investors to proceed with a class-action suit against JPMorgan Chase, meaning that all the investors can be represented by a lead plaintiff in the case. Investors are accusing the bank of misleading them by making false statements regarding the RMBS when the securities were packaged and sold to the investors in 2007, a year before the subprime lending crisis.

Judge Royce Lambert dismissed lawsuits filed in 2013 by investors at Fairholme Funds, led by Bruce Berkowitz, and Perry Capital with regards to the government's "sweeping" of GSE profits into the U.S. Treasury. The investors believed that the diversion of GSE profits created a "windfall" for the government while short changing GSE shareholders.

Speaking at the 56th annual meeting of the National Association for Business Economics (NABE) on Monday, Treasury Deputy Secretary Sarah Bloom Raskin said she does not see the nation's growing problem of student loan debt leading to an economic meltdown—and student loan debt may not be affecting a borrower's ability to buy a home, depending on that borrower's financial situation.

The Warren Group reported Tuesday stating that 2,735 single-family homes were sold in Connecticut in August, a decline from 2,898 in August 2013. It was the third month in 2014 in which single-family home sales declined year-over-year in Connecticut, according to the Warren report.

Government-sponsored enterprise Fannie Mae recently confirmed two high-level personnel changes within the organization. Leslie Peeler, SVP in charge of Fannie Mae's National Servicing Organization, is leaving the GSE for a senior position with IBM's mortgage group. Last week, the GSE also confirmed the departure of COO Terry Edwards, scheduled for early 2015.

A jury has convicted Maryland woman Annika Boas for her role in a residential mortgage fraud scheme. According to an announcement from U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein, Boas stood accused of working with other defendants to falsify or steal identity documents to secure residential mortgage loans.

Rep. Jeb Hensarling earlier this week pounced on a GAO report criticizing CFPB's data collection practices, accusing the bureau of "trying to out-NSA the NSA when it comes to accumulating information on Americans." The report came as a result of legislation passed by Congress in January that required GAO to look into CFPB's data collection methods following CFPB's refusal to disclose information about its program to Congress, according to Hensarling.

Domestic-based mortgage services provider LenderLive Network has announced the hiring of Charlie Kent as VP of national sales for the Settlement Services division.