Headlines

Damon Smith, former acting general counsel for HUD, has joined law firm Jenner & Block as a partner in the group's District of Columbia office, according to an announcement.

According to multiple reports, Benjamin Lawsky, Superintendent of the New York Department of Financial Services, is considering stepping down from his post and entering the private sector in 2015. Lawsky has made a name for himself by aggressively regulating financial institutions doing business in New York,

Florida's housing market continued on a steady growth track throughout the third quarter, though improvements were slightly subdued compared to spring and early summer. Florida Realtors' chief economist, Dr. John Tuccillo, said the quarterly numbers reinforce trends the group has seen on a month-to-month basis.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) closed down the Palm Desert-based Frontier Bank—also known as El Paseo Bank—citing a lack of assets and earnings "due to unsafe and unsound practices."

According to a motion filed with New York's Southern District Court, Bank of America and US Bancorp agreed to pay $69 million to a number of state and local pension funds that lost millions from their investment in MBS purchased from Washington Mutual before its collapse in 2008.

National home lender PrimeLending named Kelly Lee as SVP and regional manager for the Pacific Northwest.

While home sales prices posted moderate gains in September, the housing market recovery as a whole is moving slowly, according to the Wells Fargo Economics Group Housing Wrap Up for October 2014.

To say the Republicans have an uphill battle ahead where GSE reform is concerned is an understatement. The president has the power of the veto pen and while both sides have vowed to work together on areas that they can disagree, the extent to which he would support major Republican led legislation remains to be seen.

U.S. employers added 214,000 jobs last month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported Friday morning. Economists had expected payrolls would increase by 240,000, a slight decline from September's preliminary estimate of 248,000 new jobs added.

The Legal League 100 Advisory Board met Wednesday in Washington, D.C., to plot the path forward for serving the default servicing and financial services legal community in the coming year.