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As many as 100 wounded veterans and service members may receive homes free of charge, thanks to a new partnership between the mortgage lending unit for JPMorgan Chase and nonprofit Operation Homefront. The financial institution will pair homes it currently owns with qualifying families the nonprofit serves, including active-duty, Guard or Reserve, and honorably discharged service members. Any veteran from any era is eligible to apply, as are surviving single spouses of service members killed-in-action and post-9/11 disabled veterans.

Residents of Connecticut will receive $190 million from the historic $25-billion settlement with five servicers, according to the office of the state attorney general.

Rolling out a new information technology services division, ISGN Corporation is expanding its service offerings for clients in the mortgage and real estate industries.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau called for public comment on a draft it recently proposed for a mortgage statement required for borrowers under the Dodd-Frank Act. If approved, mortgage servicers and assignees of the loan would need to distribute the statement to borrowers with information that includes the principal loan amount, current interest rate, any late payments and penalties, and contact information for both the servicer and a housing counselor. A draft version of the statement shows that servicers would also need to break down past payments.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished by end of day Friday at a clip just below 13,000 points, lifting stocks and shares for all but one of the four major financial institutions. The jump reportedly marks the highest for the Dow Jones since 2008, just before the worst of the financial crisis, as investors got bullish on another round of bailout votes for debt-saddled Greece. The index closed on a .35-percent hike Friday, up 45.79 points, giving Wells Fargo a 2.37-percent boost to wrap up stocks at $31.09 per share.

After months of wrangling, the House and Senate passed a permanent payroll tax cut extension Friday without imposing controversial guarantee fees for lenders with government-backed mortgages. The House passed the bill, reportedly worth $100 billion, by a margin of 293 to 132 before the Senate cleared it by a vote of 60 to 36. Partisanship on Capitol Hill stalled the extension last fall, prompting both chambers of Congress to field a temporary two-month extension that hiked guarantee fees for lenders. The move netted criticism from various trade groups.

The Obama administration unveiled a budget for the next fiscal year that proposes levying fees for the nation├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ós largest banks, selling off government-occupied real estate, and expanding services for the Federal Housing Administration. The $3.8-trillion budget calls for a Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee to offset costs to the Troubled Asset Relief Program and mass refinance program. If passed by Congress, the fee would raise $61 billion from financial institutions with $50 billion or more in assets over the next decade. The fee draws on recent themes from the president.

Thompson & Knight LLP has gained two new partners for its Real Estate Capital Markets division, announcing the addition of attorneys William M. O'Connor and Evelyn H. Seeler to the company's New York office. In their new positions with the law firm, O'Connor and Seeler will be responsible for handling clients within the Real Estate and Capital Markets unit, as well as restructuring and bankruptcy matters.

The technology division of Jack Henry & Associates, Inc. (JKHY), is experiencing an uptick in interest from credit unions, announcing that more than 16 existing credit union clients have recently opted to engage the company's outsourcing module through JKHY's Symitar unit. JKHY's Symitar division encompasses both in-house and outsourced platform options, and credit unions are increasingly migrating from the in-house offering, Episys, to the outsourced version, EASE.

Home sales climbed 3.4 percent year-over-year in January, hitting a stride for the seventh consecutive month, according to RE/MAX. The real estate company released a National Housing Report that shows a sudden sales jump by yearend 2011, with homes for sale down 19.3 percent month-over-month. The company attributed falling inventory numbers to a shortfall in foreclosed properties, with home prices declining by 0.8 percent in 53 metropolitan areas. Home prices leapt forward in 15 metro areas year-over-year, with figures increasing by 23.8 percent in Miami, among many other cities.