Chatter about a sudden sweep of bank failures may be all the rage in Europe, but fewer closures for financial institutions stateside led the FDIC to shutter a temporary office in the Midwest on Friday. The glacial crawl for U.S. bank failures makes good on FDIC predictions that fewer institutions would fail over 2011 as more ledgers stay in the black - a change of pace for an era in which the federal agency closed a record number of banks. The FDIC said Friday that it would close the Midwest Temporary Satellite Office in Illinois.

In another twist for the nation's largest mortgage lenders, Wells Fargo upped the ante against JPMorgan Chase & Co. by filing a suit in a Delaware court to order the latter to buy back over $558 million in bad mortgage-backed securities. Multiple news outlets offered up the latest tizzy Thursday, with Wells escalating the case after JPMorgan refused to budge on the repurchases. The loans stem from the Bear Stearns Mortgage Funding Trust 2007-AR2, otherwise known as the EMC unit, which JPMorgan acquired in 2008.

It's official: Elizabeth Warren will mount a bid for the Senate as a Democratic candidate. If she makes it through a crowded primary, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau architect, onetime presidential advisor, and political lightning rod for the right will face off against Sen. Scott Brown (R-Massachusetts) over the 2012 election year. News that Warren will officially run for the Senate follows months of speculation and her ejection from a high-profile nomination process.

As Rep. Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts) made waves this week with legislation to curb voting rights for Fed governors, key provisions under his namesake law, the Dodd-Frank Act, manifested themselves in decisions by major federal regulators. The FDIC and Federal Reserve rubber-stamped a rule that require the nation's largest banks to send up blueprints for bankruptcy, while the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau steadily moved forward with the uniform mortgage disclosure form.

A rush by overseas investors to the safe haven of U.S. Treasury debt helped whittle away at yields and force mortgage rates to all-time lows, a short-term boon to creditworthy homebuyers. With the 30-year benchmark loan smashing new records, analysts for mortgage giant Freddie Mac and finance Web site Bankrate.com chalked up the favorable rates to a wobbly Greece and unsettled concerns over euro zone markets. Bankrate.com and Freddie Mac report the latest mortgage rates each week.

Mortgage application volume jumped from the previous week by 6.3 percent, reflecting the highly attractive plunge by interest rates to record lows, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Even so, the good news comes amid a fall in home valuations and cash buyer interest, which Capital Economics says will likely depress sales activity across the housing market. Frank Nothaft, VP and chief economist for Freddie Mac, spoke to MReport about the forces behind anemic demand for home purchases at the Five Star Conference and Expo in Dallas.

Lawmakers butted heads over their intentions for GSEs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac at a hearing Tuesday, with Republican members of the Senate Banking Committee seeking private-sector solutions while a number of Democrats called the federal government a needed buttress in housing finance. MReport captured a look back by former President George W. Bush at the federal bailouts orchestrated by his administration during the financial crisis.

More mortgage brokers, loan officers, and others chose Minnesota over all other states in which to bilk homeowners and lenders, placing the northern state first for mortgage fraud activity and making it the most unlikely hotspot for criminal behavior. An index released by MortgageDaily.com bore witness to a 27-percent surge in mortgage fraud activity for the North Star State over the second quarter, with other contenders seeing a rise in fraudulent behavior quarter-over-quarter.

Locke, Lord, Bissell & Liddell overturned assumptions about the still-weak legal jobs market by adding a Regina McClendon to its payrolls at the firm's San Francisco office.

The surprise resignation of a key official at the European Central Bank sent stocks and shares plunging in markets across Europe and overseas, furthering fears about a global economic slowdown and the potential for sovereign defaults across the European Union. Sagging stocks doubled up woes for Bank of America, whose CEO, Brian Moynihan, announced plans for some 40,000 layoffs as the mortgage giant reassesses its capital position in the market and undertakes restructuring efforts, according to multiple news reports.