A look at stories across HousingWire’s weekend desk…with more coverage to come on bigger issues: Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) sent a letter last week to the big-four US banks, pushing for “immediate steps to write down second mortgages,” according to a Sunday story in the Wall Street Journal. CEOs of Bank of America (BAC), Citigroup (C), JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Wells Fargo (WFC) received the letters from the House Financial Services Committee chairman. Frank said the lack of effort to write down these mortgages is holding up efforts to reduce first-lien mortgage balances. More states are giving mortgage holders up to five years to get a deficiency judgment, and if they get it, the bank has up to 20 years to collect and an option to renew for another 20 years if the debt isn’t paid, according to the Detroit Free Press. According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), mortgage recoveries climbed to $1.5bn last year, and 85% jump from 2008. In Michigan, recoveries jumped 26%, to $13.96m last year, compared with 2008. The secondary market last week saw a large amount of trading activity driven by investors looking to capitalize on the last chance at the Troubled Asset-Backed Loan Facility (TALF), according to market report from Barclays Capital. The Federal Reserve launched TALF to stimulate lending by allowing private investors to purchase securities with a matching government investment. Under TALF, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY) will lend up to $200bn. The US Treasury Department agreed to kick-in $20bn of credit protection to the FRBNY through the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Analysts also saw a slowdown in the pace of loan liquidations. Loss severities remained high last week, however. A new bill in the Florida state Senate will require financial institutions that begin to foreclose on a property to pay all fees owed on the property from the date of the filing to the finalized action. The fees include homeowners association dues, maintenance fees and property taxes. The new law applies retroactively to all foreclosure proceedings pending as of the enactment of the law. The bill was introduced and referred to a state committee on March 2. The Ohio state legislature introduced HB 408, which stipulates that a lien placed on a property by the local home owners association will take priority over any other lien except real estate taxes and political subdivision assessments. The home ownership association obtains a lien on fees that remain unpaid for 10-days after the due date. The Interactive Mortgage Advisors (IMA) offered a $196m Fannie Mae (FNM) bulk servicing offering. IMA is a brokerage for mortgage loan servicing portfolios and offers other services in the mortgage industry. Written bids for the servicing offering must be e-mailed or faxed by Wednesday, March 17. Regulators shut down three depository institutions, naming as receiver the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC). The weekly closings are estimated to cost the FDIC $201m, bringing total bank failures so far in 2010 to 25. The Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) closed Waterfield Bank. The FDIC created Waterfield Bank, FA – a new depository institution chartered by the OTS to take over operations of the $155.6m in assets and $156.4m in deposits. The FDIC estimates a $51m cost to the deposit insurance fund (DIF). The Illinois Department of Financial Professional Regulation shut down the Bank of Illinois. Heartland Bank and Trust Company will pay the FDIC a premium of 3.61% to assume all $198.5m in deposits and agreed to purchase all $211.7m in assets. The cost to the DIF is estimated to be $53.7m. The Florida Office of Financial Regulation closed Sun American Bank. First-Citizens Bank & Trust will acquire all $443.5m in deposits and all $535.7m in total assets. The FDIC estimates the cost to the DIF will be $103.8m. Write to Jon Prior. Disclosure: The author holds no relevant investment positions.

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