Wednesday’s Academic Roundup

The Rescue of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, by W. Scott Frame, Andreas Fuster, Joseph H. Tracy & James I. Vickery, FRB Atlanta Working Paper No. 2015-2.
Architectural Exclusion: Discrimination and Segregation Through Physical Design of the Built Environment, by Sarah Schindler, 124 Yale Law Journal 1934 (2015).
Assessing Financial Security of Low Income Households in the United States, by Jae Min Lee & KyoungTae Kim, Journal of Poverty, Forthcoming.

Monday’s Adjudication Roundup

Quicken Loans Inc. filed a complaint against the Justice Department and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development claiming that they tried to get Quicken to make false admissions during a settlement. The Government in turn sued Quicken under the False Claims Act for improper underwriting of mortgages and benefitting under the Federal Housing Administration insurance payouts.
The United States Supreme Court denied cert to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which argued that using contracts rather than grants to fund Section 8 public housing projects would impair the program.
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals revived suit against Citigroup. The claims, which alleged that Citigroup tricked a Korean bank into taking $25 million in toxic collateralized debt obligations, were dismissed in the New York District Court in March 2013.
Federal court requires RBS Securities to hand over which specific loans it is going to re-underwrite to National Credit Union Administration after allegedly causing the failure of at least two credit unions by misleading investors over hundreds of millions of dollars in mortgage-backed securities.
Bank of America asks Second Circuit to vacate a $1.3 billion fine after jury found BofA had defrauded Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac using its “High-Speed Swim Lane” program.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) released its results to the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Guarantee Fee Review. Following the release, the FHFA announced that the fees would remain the same with modest adjustments.
HUD released the 2009-2011 National Rental Dynamics Reports, which tracks changes in rental housing affordability.

CFPB releases report of KPMG audit of its operations and budget. In the report, CFPB agrees with KPMG’s findings about control deficiencies and is aiming to fix such deficiencies.
FHFA releases report on progress of Fannie/Freddie Conservatorships in advancing access to credit and loss mitigation/foreclosure prevention, among other improvements.
Report from NYC Department of Investigation raises concerns for health and safety of those in homeless shelters.
Report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) claims: “Affordable Housing is Nowhere to be Found for Millions.