The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has taken the next step toward building a new common securitization platform for the GSEs with the filing of a certificate to establish a joint venture.

Genworth Financial, Inc., announced Wednesday that the company is strengthening the senior leadership team of its U.S. Mortgage Insurance (USMI) unit with the addition of two key executives. Paul Gomez was recently promoted to COO of USMI, and George Reichert was named chief information officer (CIO).

A U.S. district judge in Missouri has dismissed a recording fee suit filed by officials in Jackson County against Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. (MERS), on the grounds that the county "cannot enforce a nonexistent obligation." Missouri is the fifth state in which judges have granted MERS' motions to dismiss similar recording fee lawsuits.

Cincinnati-based eLynx announced its compliance with all guidelines for obtaining electronic signatures on Form 4506-T, Request for Transcript of Tax Return.

Prospect Mortgage, LLC, announced the appointment of Michael J. Williams, former president and CEO of Fannie Mae, as chairman of its board of directors. Prospect Mortgage is a top-10 originator of home purchase loans, offering conventional, jumbo, super-jumbo, Federal Housing Administration, and Veterans Affairs mortgages as well as home renovation loans.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts) is speaking out in defense of JPMorgan Chase, calling the U.S. government's lawsuit against the financial institution a case of "no good deed goes unpunished." New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed a suit against JPMorgan for the alleged misconduct of Bear Stearns & Co. prior to JPMorgan's acquisition of the failing investment bank, but Frank says the bank is being punished for getting involved at the government's request.

Five servicers--Ally/GMAC, Bank of America, Citi, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo--agreed to a $25 billion penalty as part of the national mortgage settlement. Of that total, $2.5 billion was paid directly to the participating states. To date, states have announced plans to spend $966 million of the settlement money on housing- and foreclosure-related activities, according to Enterprise Community Partners, Inc. Another $988 million has been funneled toward general funds or non-housing ventures.

According to the FHFA, the government's Home Affordable Refinance Program is on target to reach a million borrowers this year.

Home prices in September were up 5 percent year-over-year while home sales posted a 4 percent annual increase, even as housing metrics began their typical seasonal declines, according to Redfin's analysis of activity across 19 major U.S. markets. Between August and September, these 19 markets saw prices decline just 0.8 percent, which Redfin says is a smaller decline than is customary at this time of year. Over the same period, home sales dropped 17 percent├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔé¼┬Øa figure the company says represents "a typical seasonal decline."

Wells Fargo faces federal charges for alleged misconduct and fraud related to its role as a direct endorsement lender for the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) over a span of more than 10 years. The civil lawsuit was filed Tuesday in a Manhattan federal court and alleges Wells Fargo falsely certified the credit and underwriting quality of thousands of FHA loans it originated which later defaulted, costing the federal agency hundreds of millions of dollars.