Humphries Says Housing May Bottom in First Half of 2011 (Video)

Thu, 2010-11-11 08:27 — admin

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have begun telling real-estate agents nationwide to resume sales of foreclosed properties that had been suspended after document-handling problems surfaced over the past two months.

Fannie said Friday it had lifted a moratorium on foreclosed-property sales following a review of the affected properties it has acquired and after consulting with its government regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency. It was unclear how quickly sales would resume because loan servicers are still completing their reviews of paperwork.

“Our decision was motivated by several factors including the protection of buyers with title insurance, the negative impact lingering foreclosed properties has on neighborhoods and the cost burden that is placed on taxpayers when [bank-owned] sales are suspended,” said a Fannie Mae spokeswoman.

Fannie and Freddie owned nearly 240,000 properties at the end of September, valued at nearly $24 billion. Difficulty selling those homes could lead to higher carrying costs for the mortgage titans. Delays also could prompt buyers that had been under contract to lower their asking prices or to walk away from deals.

via online.wsj.com

Posted via email from Title Insurance
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Escrow Co. Sues Bank Over $440K Cyber Theft — Krebs on Security

November 27, 2010 admin

An escrow firm in Missouri is suing its bank to recover $440,000 that organized cyber thieves stole in an online robbery earlier this year, claiming the bank’s reliance on passwords to secure high-dollar transactions failed to measure up to federal e-banking security guidelines.

The attack against Springfield, Mo. based title insurance provider Choice Escrow and Land Title LLC began late in the afternoon on St. Patrick’s Day, when hackers who had stolen the firm’s online banking ID and password used the information to make a single unauthorized wire transfer for $440,000 to a corporate bank account in Cyprus.

The following day, when Choice Escrow received a notice about the transfer from its financial institution — Tupelo, Miss. based BancorpSouth Inc. — it contacted the bank to dispute the transfer. But by the close of business on March 18, the bank was distancing itself from the incident and its customer, said Jim A. Payne, director of business development for Choice Escrow.

“What they really were doing is contacting their legal department and figuring out what they were going to say to us. It took them until 5 p.m. to call us back, and they basically said, ‘Sorry, we can’t help you. This is your responsibility.’”

“They said, ‘We’re going to get back to you, we’re working on it’,” Payne said. “What they really were doing is contacting their legal department and figuring out what they were going to say to us. It took them until 5 p.m. to call us back, and they basically said, ‘Sorry, we can’t help you. This is your responsibility.’”