Bernanke spoke to lawmakers today. Here's some highlights.

JPMorgan to scale back troubled-mortgage jobs Businessweek NEW YORK (AP) - JPMorgan will trim about 19,000 jobs over the next two years but cast a positive spin on the news: It is shrinking the unit it had beefed up to handle troubled mortgages. The bulk of the cuts, about 15,000, will come at the mortgage unit, ...

The school book story you remember about a bank taking deposits, holding reserves and then later lending them out is all wrong.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Home sales and prices are rising briskly in those neighborhoods where the well-heeled like to plant their mailboxes: along Chicago's north shore, in the San Francisco Bay area and in the haute Hamptons.

On February 23, the New York Times published an article describing how some banks enable Internet payday lending. In this brief, CRL provides additional legal context to supplement that article. Bottom line: We need to continue passing state laws that provide strong enforcement tools, and federal regulators need to use their full authority to stop predatory payday loans.

Press Release

The improving housing market is beginning to serve as a tailwind for the economy. But one of the housing sector's most effective multiplier effects on the economy could be muted for the next few years.

As many investors hunt for yield and banks remain hesitant to lend at pre-crisis levels, peer-to-peer lender Prosper hopes to capitalize on that gap. And one key investor is betting big on Prosper's strategy. But is the lending platform too risky?

Press Release FDIC-Insured Institutions Earned $34.7 Billion in The Fourth Quarter of 2012 Full-Year Net Income Rises to $141.3 Billion, the Highest Since 2006 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 26, 2013 Media Contact: Andrew Gray (202) 898-7192 angray@fdic.gov   Commercial banks and savings institutions insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) reported aggregate net income of $34.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2012, a $9.3 billion (36.9 percent) improvement from the $25.3 billion in profits the industry reported in the fourth quarter of 2011. This is the 14th quarter in a row that earnings have registered a year-over-year increase. Increased noninterest income and lower provisions for loan losses continued to account for most of the year-over-year improvement in earnings. For the full year, industry earnings totaled $141.3 billion — a 19.3 percent improvement over 2011 and the second-highest ever reported by the industry after the $145.2 billion earned in 2006. "The improving trend that began more than three years ago gained further ground in the fourth quarter," said FDIC Chairman Martin J. Gruenberg. "Balances of troubled loans declined, earnings rose from a year ago, and more institutions of all sizes showed improved performance." Sixty percent of all institutions reported improvements in their quarterly net income from a year ago. Also, the share of institutions reporting net losses for the quarter fell to 14.0 percent from 20.2 percent a year earlier. The average return on assets (ROA), a basic yardstick of profitability, rose to 0.97 percent from 0.73 percent a year ago. Fourth quarter net operating revenue (net interest income plus total noninterest income) totaled $169 billion, an increase of $7.3 billion (4.5 percent) from a year earlier, as gains from loan sales rose by $2.4 billion and trading income increased by $1.9 billion. Net interest income was $2.7 billion (2.5 percent) lower than in the fourth...

Bernanke Defends Asset Purchases as Benefits Outweigh Risks Bloomberg Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke defended the central bank's unprecedented asset purchases, saying they are supporting the expansion with little risk of inflation or asset-price bubbles. "We do not see the potential costs of the increased risk- ...

This is a breaking news story. Please check back on CNBC.com for updates to this article.. New home sales are forecast to post an annualized rise of 381,000 for January, compared with 369,000 in December, according to a survey of Reuters economists..

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke faces the first of two days of congressional testimony that will subject the Fed's controversial bond-buying program to tough scrutiny and gauge his confidence in the resilience of the U.S. economy.

Judge Rules Florida Law Uniformly Opposed to Plaintiffs' Claim FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  CONTACT:   Jason Lobo Phone: 703-652-1660 Email: jasonl@mersinc.org Reston, Virginia, February 26, 2013 - MERSCORP Holdings, Inc. today announced that Judge John C. Cooper of the State of Florida Circuit Court of the Second Judicial Circuit held "umerous courts have examined, and approved, the use of MERS as a mortgagee" and rejected a private citizen claim alleging violations of Florida False Claims Act (FCA).  In State of Florida and the State of Florida through its Department of Revenue ex. rel. Barbara Stevens and Thomas Stevens v. MERS, et al. , Plaintiffs alleged MERS and its members made false statements when designating MERS as mortgagee on mortgages to avoid documentary stamp taxes. " Florida law is uniformly opposed to Plaintiffs' claim that designating MERS as a mortgagee is a false statement," Judge Cooper held. "Courts in Florida have heard, and rejected, numerous similar challenges to the designation of MERS as mortgagee." As a matter of state law, Judge Cooper noted that Plaintiffs cannot seek compensation through FCA because "Florida law vests exclusive authority for the 'control and administration' of many tax laws, including the Stamp Tax at issue here, in the Florida Department of Revenue," not the court system. The "Stamp Tax" is a single excise tax levied on either a promissory note or mortgage (but not both) evidencing a borrower's promise to pay.  He further held that even if Plaintiffs' could bring their claim under FCA, it would fail because as a prerequisite to FCA claims, Plaintiffs must be an "original source" of the charges made in any suit. Similar charges against MERS, however, have already been disclosed in the public domain for many years and are, as a result, barred under the FCA statute. Judge Cooper further described that even if the...

February 26, 2013: U.S. House Prices Rose 1.4 Percent in Fourth Quarter 2012