* On Jan. 7, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Reserve Board announced that 10 servicers reached an agreement in principle to pay more than $8.5 billion in cash payments and in other assistance to help borrowers as a result of an enforcement action regarding deficient servicing practices.

The agreement includes Aurora, Bank of America, Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, MetLife Bank, PNC, Sovereign, SunTrust, U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo. The agencies said they continue to work to reach similar agreements with other servicers that are not parties to the agreement announced on Jan. 7 but are subject to similar enforcement actions for servicing and foreclosure practices.

The settlement amount includes $3.3 billion in direct payments to eligible borrowers and $5.2 billion in other assistance, including loan modifications and forgiveness of deficiency judgments, according to the banking regulators. The agreement stems from the enforcement actions brought against the servicers that signed consent orders in April 2011. The OCC and the Fed said that their examiners are continuing to closely monitor the servicers' implementation of plans required by the enforcement actions issued in April 2011 to correct unsafe and unsound mortgage servicing and foreclosure practices.

BUSINESS BAROMETER
TOTAL HOUSING STARTS (SEASONALLY ADJUSTED)

                  No. of Starts
December 2012:          954,000

December 2011:          697,000

Year-Over-Year Change:   +36. …