The Obama administration is drawing up plans to give all U.S. spy agencies full access to a massive database that contains financial data on American citizens and others who bank in the country, according to a Treasury Department document seen by Reuters.

Federal Reserve announces time changes for FOMC statements and news conferences

Southland Begins 2013 With Sales and Price Gains Vs. Year Earlier March 13, 2013 La Jolla, CA---Southern California logged the highest February home sales in six years last month amid relatively strong sales of mid- to high-end properties and a record share of homes sold to absentee buyers. The median sale price edged slightly lower from January but rose nearly 21 percent from a year earlier, marking the 11th straight month in which the median has risen year-over-year, a real estate information service reported. A total of 15,945 new and resale houses and condos sold in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties last month. That was down 0.7 percent from 16,058 sales in January, and up 1.0 percent from 15,780 sales in February 2012, according to San Diego-based DataQuick. Typically there's not much change in the number of sales between January and February. On average, sales have risen 0.7 percent between those two months since 1988, when DataQuick's statistics begin. Last month's sales were the highest for the month of February since 17,680 homes sold in February 2007, but they were 9.9 percent below the February average of 17,696 sales. The low for February sales was 10,777 in 2008, while the high was 26,587 in 2004. "Our January and February stats certainly indicate housing remains a big target for investors. But typically those two months don't offer much insight into how the market will behave the rest of the year. These are sales that closed in January and February, meaning many of the buyers were out home shopping during the holiday season late last year. That's when many traditional buyers and sellers drop out of the market, leaving a relatively high concentration of very motivated market participants, especially investors," said John Walsh, DataQuick president. "March and April will offer a better view of how broader market trends are shaping up this year. One of the real wild cards will...

Government backing for the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) gives it competitive advantages over private sector mortgage insurers, driving them out of the marketplace and leaving homebuyers with fewer choices, witnesses told the Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance today. These advantages are one reason why the FHA dominates the mortgage insurance market.  The FHA insured more than 57 percent of all insured mortgages in 2012, dwarfing the 18 percent share held by private mortgage insurers.  The FHA's single-family insurance fund insures more than $1 trillion worth of home mortgages but has a negative economic value of $16.3 billion, according to an actuarial report released last November. "Because it is a government-backed entity, the taxpayers are, in fact, on the hook for over a trillion dollars worth of mortgages in this country," said Subcommittee Chairman Randy Neugebauer (R-TX).  "You have an over trillion dollar entity that is backed by the American taxpayers that has a negative net worth.  Now any other company like that would be in bankruptcy or receivership." Wednesday's hearing was the third in a series the Financial Services Committee is holding this year to examine the nation's housing finance system.  Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) announced in January that the hearings will focus specifically on the financially troubled FHA and the need to create a sustainable and competitive housing finance system.  In the past few years, "FHA has dominated the mortgage insurance market due to housing policies and practices that provide competitive advantages to FHA while crowding out private capital," Teresa Bryce Bazemore , president of private mortgage insurance company Radian Guaranty, Inc., said in testimony to the subcommittee.  These policies and practices "steer borrowers to FHA instead of bringing more private sector...

Josh Rosner is co-author of the New York Times Bestseller "Reckless Endangerment" and Managing Director at independent research consultancy Graham Fisher & Co. He advises regulators, policy-makers and institutional investors on banking and financial services (a more complete bio appears at the end of this column). This is part 2 of 5; Yesterday evening, we [...]

BofA Said to Cut 5% of Property Appraisers Amid Slowdown Businessweek Bank of America Corp. (BAC), the second- largest U.S. lender, cut about 5 percent of staff in its appraisal unit last month as the firm rid itself of delinquent mortgages, said two people with knowledge of the move. The job reductions at LandSafe, a business with ...

Lenders are increasingly approving low down payment loans, and government sponsored mortgage giant Fannie Mae is buying more of them. It is a noticeable shift from the last four years, when 20 percent down on a home purchase loan was the only game in the neighborhood.

March 13, 2013: HARP Refinances Surpass 2012 Estimates

Josh Rosner is co-author of the New York Times Bestseller “Reckless Endangerment” and Managing Director at independent research consultancy Graham Fisher & Co. He advises regulators, policy-makers and institutional investors on banking and financial services (a more complete bio appears at the end of this column). This is part 1 of 5; We will be [...]

The issue of the CFPB's regulatory burden on credit unions was raised by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Johnson, D-S.D., during a hearing Tuesday on the nomination of CFPB Director Richard Cordray.