In Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s world, all he had to do was lower interest rates enough and housing prices would magically re-inflate.  Wrong!  Mortgage rates are at all time lows, home prices are at 2002 levels and owning a home is just as cheap as renting, yet the housing market remains mired in a depression. The folks at the Federal Reserve who created the [...]

The FDIC issued 57 enforcement actions against banks in December 2011, down from 72 in November. The December enforcement actions included 9 consent orders, 19 civil money penalties, 4 prompt corrective actions, 3 voluntary terminations of insurance, 12 removal and prohibition orders and 10 orders terminating previous consent orders and cease and desist orders. A consent order is [...]

David Stockman, former budget director in the Reagan administration, argues persuasively that the fundamental problems of the financial system are worse than in 2008. The “too big to fail” banks have become bigger, politicians have been bought and paid for, an entitled class of Wall Street financiers are being served by government policies and a massive amount of  [...]

According to Micheal Olenick, founder of FindtheFraud, the worst of the housing crash and banking crisis still lies ahead of us.  Mr. Olenick’s excellent in depth analysis discusses the multiple factors that are prolonging the foreclosure crisis and explains how banks and servicers are trying to delay taking losses that could eventually reach a staggering $1 trillion. Mr. [...]

The housing crisis is widely viewed as the biggest impediment to economic recovery.  Despite the expenditure of trillions of dollars in financial support from the Federal Reserve and other government agencies, housing prices continue to decline.  In addition, the wide ranging regulatory overhaul of banking and mortgage practices being implemented under the Dodd-Frank Act, is viewed [...]

While the Federal Reserve and other government agencies urge banks to lower credit standards and increase lending, one major mortgage lender is calling it quits due to onerous regulatory burdens that increase lending risks and reduce profits. MetLife, the country’s largest insurance company, is closing its $20 billion mortgage operations and firing 4,300 employees.  The mortgage [...]

Welcome to Banking Update, a roundup of articles and news from around the Internet.  Banks continue to be sued for selling defective mortgages, the Fed says a housing recovery is essential for economic recovery, Americans still believe owning a home is part of the “American dream”, banks are still engaged in risky behavior, savings rates are negative, European banks [...]

The FDIC issued a total of 72 enforcement actions against banks in November 2011, down slightly from 75 in October. Included in the November enforcement actions were 9 civil money penalties, 1 prompt corrective action and 13 consent orders.  The FDIC also terminated 37 consent orders and prompt corrective action directives due to either the failure of the bank involved or compliance [...]

Welcome to Banking Update, a roundup of articles and news from around the Internet.  The Bank of America situation just keeps getting worse with another large fine for BofA, foreclosures are weighing down the balance sheets of banks, Nevada home prices just keep on dropping after a 63% delcine, home equity borrowings have collapsed, the ECB tries to save Europe’s banks with [...]

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac just keep on laughing at the taxpayers as they award bonuses,  send employees off on expensive travel junkets and pile up losses that have already cost the taxpayers $183 billion. Just weeks after it was revealed that the top ten executives at Fannie and Freddie received $47.8 million in bonuses while simultaneously asking the U.S. Treasury for an additional [...]