Government

In the first 30 days of the new presidential administration, the urgency to deal with the nation’s banking and financial crisis has taken top priority. The crisis has escalated and many potential resolutions are being explored – case in point, on Friday, President Obama named former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, along with 15 other leaders from various industries to an independent committee designed to help the White House combat a growing recession.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is expected to lay out the new administration’s comprehensive Financial Stability and Recovery Plan on Tuesday, detailing how the government will use the remainder of the $700 billion bailout money, as well as additional programs it hopes will kick-start the U.

President Barack Obama named the members of his new Economic Recovery Advisory Board on Friday – a team that he says will bring with it fresh ideas that go beyond the walls of Washington. The group of outside advisers will offer independent advice to the White House to help the administration craft an effective response to the nation’s growing recession.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), regulator of the nation’s GSEs and the more than $6.3 trillion in mortgage funding they supply, released its November Foreclosure Prevention Report today.

Fannie Mae will need as much as $16 billion from the Treasury Department to avoid posting a loss in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to an Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The announcement comes just days after Freddie Mac filed a similar report indicating it would as for as much as $35 billion to keep it solvent.

Freddie Mac will need $30 to $35 billion from the U.S. Treasury Department to avoid posting a loss for the fourth quarter of 2008, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission report filed Friday.

The city of Brooklyn Center, a suburb of Minnesota’s Twin Cities, is taking a unique approach to helping find new buyers for foreclosed homes, according to a report in the Minneapolis- St. Paul Star Tribune.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) new home valuation code of conduct was created to promote transparency and put distance between lenders and appraisers to encourage more accurate property appraisals, but some question whether it will be effective.

Indiana lawmakers are considering a variety of options to help homeowners and lenders in the Hoosier state overcome the mortgage crisis, according to a report in The Indianapolis Star. According to the report, Indiana is one of nine states with a higher rate of loans in foreclosure than the national average of 3 percent, and lawmakers are looking for ways to stem that tide, including extending the foreclosure process, financial assistance, and a state-wide moratorium on foreclosures.

Federal Housing Finance Board (FHFB) Chairman Ronald Rosenfeld resigned from his post on December 31. The Federal Housing Finance Board was responsible for the supervision of the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks until the enactment of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 merged it with the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO), and the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) mission team, to create the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) in July, 2008.