Monday morning cup of coffee

A look at stories across HousingWire’s weekend desk…with more coverage to come on bigger issues: Sen. Ted Kaufman (D-Del.) was appointed Friday to serve as a member of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program. He is taking the place of Elizabeth Warren, who is now head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and special advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury. He joins J. Mark McWatters, Richard Neiman (superintendent of banks for the State of New York), Damon Silvers (policy director and special counsel for the AFL-CIO), Kenneth Troske, and William B. Sturgill (professor of Economics at the University of Kentucky) on the panel. TARP expired Sunday, but the panel will keep oversight until April 2011. The $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program may have ended, but the Treasury Department is still awaiting $55 billion in paybacks from its Capital Purchase Program, according to the latest TARP report. The American Land Title Association, a national trade association representing more than 3,800 title insurance companies and agents, is reassuring homeowners who recently purchased a foreclosed or real estate-owned property. After some lenders halted pending foreclosures nationwide because of questionable documentation, the validity of property titles inevitably came into question. ALTA said Friday it believes these questionable foreclosures will have little adverse impact on the new owners of REO properties. “If a new homeowner’s title is challenged because of a faulty foreclosure, the title insurer may have an obligation to defend the challenge,” said Kurt Pfotenhauer, chief executive officer of ALTA. “However, it is unlikely that a court will take property from an innocent current homeowner and return it to a previous homeowner who failed to make payments on the loan subject to the foreclosure.” In the event that a court does set aside a foreclosure because of documentation defects, ALTA said the foreclosing lender would be required to return all funds received for the property to the homeowner. The laws vary by state. Even still, Old Republic National Title Insurance isn’t taking any chances. According to an article by The New York Times, the firm told agents Friday it is no longer insuring homes foreclosed by JPMorgan Chase & Co. As one of the nation’s largest title insurers, Old Republic said it would not write policies on foreclosed Chase properties until “objectionable issued have been resolved,” The New York Times reported. The firm said last week it would not insure any foreclosed homes serviced by GMAC Mortgage. GMAC and JPMorgan Chase have both halted foreclosures nationwide. They believe some of their foreclosure documents could have been approved through a technique known as robo-signing. The firms’ servicers essentially approved foreclosures without reviewing the cases or signed federal documents without a notary present. A loan officer from Annapolis, Maryland pleaded guilty on Friday to conspiracy in committing mortgage fraud. According to the FBI, James Fox II and a partner promised homeowners facing foreclosure they would help them keep their homes, but the deals left the borrowers with no equity and no right to their property title. Fox forged numerous loan applications, including falsifying borrower names, inaccurate income estimates, and fake sources of funding, according to the bureau. Fox is facing the maximum sentence of 20 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine. The government estimates the scheme cost homeowners between $1 million and $2.5 million. Changes to new underwriting data requirements for loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration take effect Monday. The changes regard online documentation for a sponsored originator, who is a third-party underwriter hired by a lender to specifically take care of the origination process. Sponsored originators are not FHA-approved individuals, but instead work with lenders who are approved by the FHA. Two bank failures were reported over the weekend, for a total of 130 this year. The Washington Department of Financial Institutions closed Shoreline Bank in Shoreline, Wash. GBC International Bank in Los Angeles will assume the $100.2 million worth of deposits and purchase $65.7 million of Shoreline assets. Shoreline Bank had approximately $104.2 million in assets when it was shuttered. The Florida Office of Financial Regulation closed Wakulla Bank of Crawford, Fla. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. entered a purchase agreement with Centennial Bank in Conway, Ark., which will acquire all deposits from Wakulla Bank. At its time of closing, Wakulla Bank had $424.1 million in total assets and $386.3 million in total deposits. The FDIC estimated the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund will be $113.4 million. Write to Christine Ricciardi.