Government

If recent remarks by Treasury adviser Raj Date signal anything, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau means to press forward with the responsibilities enshrined for it under the Dodd-Frank Act. The CFPB holdover, who filled the shoes of Elizabeth Warren, now a Senate candidate, explored events in the lead-up to the controversial bureau even as an unwavering Republican opposition holds the line. Assuming responsibility for 18 consumer financial laws, the CFPB has moved forward with rules and proposals.

The phrase family business found a new meaning this week as arrests and jail sentences followed for two men and their children that authorities corralled for bilking lenders and homeowners. Also making the mortgage fraud blotter Friday: five businessmen from Iowa and over a dozen defendants from Miami. The victims included a widow, homeowners in distress, and lenders. MReport pooled the latest in mortgage fraud news from cases nestled in the pages of newspapers from around the country.

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.

Changes are on the way for Clopton Capital, with the company's recent announcement that it would launch a small-balance mortgage plan for minimally-sized loans. Primarily focused on commercial mortgages, SBA loans, commercial real estate loans, and niche financing, Clopton's new program is a rarity among similar lenders Clopton's offering will target single applicant loans between $25,000 and $400,000.

An international partnership between the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation and Clearstream is set to enhance operations for bilateral loans. The companies plan to combine DTCC's Loan/SERV and Clearstream's collateral management platform to streamline the registration and reconciliation of loans, as well as facilitate the use of loans as collateral. DTCC and Clearstream will the collaboration to support credit claims and syndicated loan markets, with Clearstream initiating the leveraging of DTCC's Loan/SERV reconciliation service during the first half of 2012.

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.