The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced this week that it has published final guidelines for large financial institutions regarding the strengthening of governance and risk management practices for those institutions. Covered institutions will now be required to control and manage risk-taking activities by following a written risk governance framework under the new guidelines, OCC announced.

A new report from Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies and AARP posits that the population of adults age 50 and above will reach 132 million by 2030, a jump of more than 70 percent since the year 2000. But while their numbers are rapidly increasing, the amount of housing that is affordable, physically accessible, and located well is not, the report said.

While the state of Alabama has been slow to recover economically since the recession officially ended five years ago, the housing market's recovery in the state has struggled along with the rest of the nation so far this year, according to a commentary from Wells Fargo's Economics Group.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency proposed a rule to amend financial institutions' requirements for application and membership retention in one of the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks. The revision was proposed to ensure that members stay committed to housing finance and that only those eligible will have access to membership benefits and advances from one of the Federal Home Loan Banks.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) proposed last week a rule to establish new housing goals for 2015 through 2017 for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. For single-family housing goals for 2015 through 2017, FHFA requests comment on three alternative approaches regarding prospective benchmarks for low and very low-income families.

In its 2014 Second Quarter Market Share Analysis, the American Land Title Association (ALTA) reported that the industry generated $2.7 billion in premiums in Q2 2014, down from $3.3 billion the industry generated in Q2 2013. "A lackluster spring homebuying season that was weaker than anticipated coupled with a substantial decline in refinance activity resulted in the drop in title insurance premium volume," said ALTA CEO Michelle Korsmo.

The nation's leading online real estate marketplace, Auction.com, has announced that Mindy Heppberger has been named the company's new EVP and chief legal officer.

Colorado's unemployment rate dropped to 5.3 percent in July, and the state's real gross domestic product (GDP) grew at a rate of two points faster than the national average in 2013, according to a recent report from Wells Fargo's Economics Group. Where housing recovery is concerned, however, Colorado's struggles mirror those of the country as a whole, according to Wells Fargo.

The 2014 Five Star Conference and Expo will feature an important industry event hosted by Brian Montgomery, former Federal Housing Administration (FHA) commissioner and current chairman of the Collingwood Group, a Washington, D.C.-based mortgage lending business advisory firm.

A report filed last week by the Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) states that Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae ignored "red flags" with regards to a mortgage fraud scheme perpetrated by lenders Taylor, Bean & Whitaker and Colonial Bank. In addition to the losses absorbed by Freddie Mac (almost $2 billion) and Ginnie Mae (almost $1 billion), private banks that conducted business with Taylor Bean lost billions.