Government

After dipping into negative territory last month, consumer sentiment inched up in March, according to the Consumer Reports Index. The index's sentiment measure improved to 50.7 in March from a reading of 48.9 in February. The greatest improvement among income brackets was seen in lower-income households earning less than $50,000--that index climbed 3.7 points. Besides sentiment, the index report tracks consumer responses on four other key measures: financial troubles, stress, retail activity, and employment.

Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), sat once again on Tuesday in front of the Senate Banking Committee, this time to present his case to continue leading the consumer agency. While some had expected a contentious round of questioning from Republicans critical of CFPB in its current form, the proceedings were generally cordial, with Cordray and commitee members agreeing to work together to maximize transparency and accountability at the bureau.

Avon, Connecticut's Norcom Mortgage welcomed Frank Haran to the team as VP of business development. Haran has worked in the industry for more than 30 years and served most recently as first EVP for McCue Mortgage in New Britain, Connecticut.

The number of layoffs fell 4.0 percent to 1,507,000 in January, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday in its monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) release. The layoff total was the smallest since the JOLTS reports began in December 2000.

Mortgage Master, based in Walpole, Massachusetts, selected Karen Menza to lead the company's Midwest operation team as regional operations manager.

Trulia announced the beta launch of Trulia Suggests, a new, personalized, and visually engaging way for home buyers to discover homes.

GMH Mortgage Services LLC, a nationally recognized mortgage banker headquartered in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, announced a new hire. Frank DiMaio joined the company as SVP of national retail sales.

A major investor in residential mortgage-backed security trusts filed a complaint against Nationstar over its selling of non-performing loans backing securities.

FDIC announced Friday the closure of Frontier Bank, based in LaGrange, Georgia. Frontier Bank mark's Georgia's first bank failure in 2013 and is the nation's fourth failure overall this year. By the same time in 2012, there had been 12 bank collapses.

According to the Flow of Funds report for Q4 2012, household assets grew to $79.5 trillion in the fourth quarter, an increase of $1.3 trillion--not too shabby. Household financial assets were up $784 billion to $54.4 billion but home equity (the value of household real estate less loans against that real estate) grew $452.8 billion, the result of two moving parts: real estate values (which increased) and household mortgage liabilities, which dropped. Once the dust settled, it meant equity in household real estate assets moved to 46.6 percent in the Q4.