Three federal regulatory agencies finalized stress-testing guidance Monday for financial institutions with total assets worth more than $10 billion. The Federal Reserve, FDIC, and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency released the guidance after receiving 17 comment letters from banks, financial advisory firms, and trade groups. The agencies stressed the importance of capital and liquidity, saying that systemically important financial institutions should apply stress tests to these areas on a regular basis as the rule moves forward.

Residential Capital LLC, the embattled mortgage subsidiary of Ally Financial, filed Chapter 11 Monday, with Nationstar Mortgage Holdings Inc. set to acquire it. The Detroit-based company framed the move as a way to shave losses, repay taxpayers, and preserve its position as an auto lender. Lewisville, Texas-based Nationstar said in a separate announcement that it would acquire ResCap, with the purchase including $374 billion in mortgage servicing assets and $201 billion in primary residential mortgage servicing rights.

Consumer advocates now have the ability to report violations if their clients suspect any as the nation├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ós five largest servicers complete requirements under the $25 billion settlement. Speaking at a conference hosted by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, Joseph A. Smith, Jr., the settlement monitor, announced the standup of a website portal for complaints about servicers. A statement said that the monitor will use any information gathered from the online tool to oversee implementation of the agreement with servicers.

More homeowners continue to reap benefits from the newly modified Home Affordable Refinance Program, with 79 percent of homeowners with government-backed mortgages either keeping the same level of mortgage debt as before or reducing it over the first quarter. Of those homeowners, Freddie Mac found recently, 79 percent held onto the same level of debt for first-lien home mortgages, while 21 percent of homeowners shaved off dollars from their principal balance. The share of borrowers keeping their original loan amounts hovered at the highest level in the 26-year history of the survey.

The Obama administration made another push Friday to expand refinancing opportunities for homeowners, with HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan behind the effort to adopt any one of three bills currently in Congress. Officials told reporters in a teleconference Friday that President Barack Obama would appear with a family in Nevada later that day to tout the need for a wider refinance net. The HUD secretary outlined three bills before Congress that seek to streamline the refinance application process and increase servicer competition by reducing barriers.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau unveiled new rulemaking proposals Thursday that would require background checks for mortgage originators and complement a previous rule that prohibits loan officers from steering borrowers to higher-priced products. Together with these rules, others would provide consumers with discounts for paying mortgage origination points, mandate comparison plans for those interested in tracking different products, and ban brokerage firms from charging fees that vary by the loan size.

Jittery investors retreated to U.S. Treasury debt this week after upsets in French and Greek elections, a movement that yet again drove mortgage rates to all-time lows. Freddie Mac found Thursday that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage broke records by falling to 3.83 percent, down from 3.84 percent last week. Finance Web site Bankrate.com, which releases a survey at the same as Freddie each week, found similar results, with the 15-year fixed-rate mortgage hitting 3.2 percent and the jumbo 30-year loan falling to 4.54 percent, both new lows.

HUD announced Thursday that it reached a $202 million settlement with Deutsche Bank and Mortgageit over allegations of misconduct and false certifications with a government lender program. The agency said that Mortgageit acknowledged and accepted responsibility for false certifications it submitted to HUD in order to gain from a direct lender program under the Federal Housing Administration. For its part, Deutsche Bank admitted wrongdoing by failing to account for Mortgageit's activities when personnel with the financial institution were in a place to know about them.

Home prices rose by a seasonally adjusted 0.2 percent in February, the first increase since March last year, according to Lender Processing Services. The analytics and data provider said that several other indicators posted solid gains in February. Home prices averaged $195,000, the same as seen in June 2003. LPS also projected a 0.3 percent increase in national home prices on the whole come March. Of 26 metro areas surveyed by LPS and the Labor Department, only cities in California ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔé¼┼ô Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔé¼┼ô observed price declines.

Fannie Mae revealed that it produced $2.7 billion in net income for the first quarter this year, enough to prevent another draw from the Treasury, a first for the mortgage giant since it entered federal conservatorship in 2008. The favorable results offer a significant difference to a net loss of $6.5 billion from the same quarter last year, along with a net loss of $2.4 billion by the fourth quarter. Despite net income for the first quarter, Fannie Mae sustains a debt for more than $180 billion in taxpayer funds it has received with Freddie Mac since 2008.