Origination

Goldman Sachs is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to dismiss a mortgage securities class action lawsuit that the company says could cost Wall Street tens of billions of dollars, according to a report from Reuters. The bank is facing a suit from the NECA-IBEW Health & Welfare Fund, which is suing on behalf of investors who say they were misled about the securities' risk. Goldman's lawyers are arguing against the suit, citing a 2011 decision that investors may not sue over securities they did not purchase themselves.

CoreLogic seeks to improve the analytics that help drive underwriting standards in order to help lenders make better lending decisions.

Construction spending rose 0.6 percent in September to its highest level since 2009, the Census Bureau reported Thursday. Spending during the month was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $851.6 billion, up from the revised August estimated of $846.2 billion. Private residential construction posted a 2.8 percent gain from August. That improvement was mostly driven by single-family building, which rose 3.9 percent as low mortgage rates spurred increased demand for new homes.

The U.S. government is violating the terms of the national mortgage settlement with its lawsuit against Wells Fargo, attorneys for the bank argue. In a motion filed in a U.S. District Court, attorney Douglas Baruch says the settlement "wiped the slate clean for Wells Fargo in terms of facing any further liability to the United States (except in carefully crafted, narrow circumstances) for a wide range of Wells Fargo conduct relating to the bank's Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgage loan portfolio, among other areas."

Last week's jobs report contained some good news with the bad, but analysts doubt there's enough to influence the presidential election.

Veterans United Home Loans earned a coveted spot on Great Place to Work's list of the best small and medium workplaces for 2012, the company announced.

Consumer confidence rose in October to its highest level this year, according to a survey released by The Conference Board.

The nation├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ós unemployment rate inched up to 7.9 percent in October, even as the economy added 171,000 jobs, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. The labor force--the sum of employed and unemployed--improved in October, causing the bump in the unemployment rate and signaling renewed confidence among those on the sidelines that jobs are available. With its mixed results, the report provides fodder for both President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney four days before Election Day.

After aggressively pursuing opportunities to grow, Ocwen Financial Corporation (Ocwen) reported an increase earnings in the third quarter of 2012. The mortgage servicer reported a net income of $51.4 million, or $0.37 per share in Q3 2012, a sharp increase of more than $30 million from the same quarter a year ago. Revenue soared even higher in Q3, spiking 90 percent from last year to $232.7 million. Ocwen says the figures for revenue and income from operations were record-setting numbers.

The mortgage market may be the largest market for consumer finance, but the sector lacks a comprehensive national database, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). This is why the federal agencies are coming together to create a national mortgage database.