Statewide Highlights

IMPORTANT INFORMATION INCLUDING ALERTS, WARNINGS & NOTICES

• Quarterly Reporting - California Foreclosure Prevention Act (CFPA) - Order from the Commissioner of Financial Institutions requiring mortgage loan servicers that have obtained an exemption from the California Foreclosure Prevention Act to provide loan modification data within thirty (30) days after the end of each quarter.
• Valley First Credit Union to help in operation of Tracy Federal Credit Union
  Valley First Credit Union, Modesto, a state-chartered credit union, will assist in the day to day running of Tracy Federal Credit Union, Tracy, which was placed into conservatorship by the National Credit Union Administration on March 18, 2010. Valley First Credit Union plans to keep the former Tracy FCU branches open.

DFI PRESS RELEASES

• Arrowhead Central Credit Union Placed into Conservatorship
• State Closes 1st Pacific Bank of California - FDIC Information
• State Closes Tamalpais Bank - FDIC Information

CONSUMER RESOURCES

• Follow DFI on Twitter!The Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) is now on Twitter. Join the conversations on Twitter at www.twitter.com. To follow general information, follow @CaliforniaDFI; to follow California Financial Literacy Month efforts, follow @CAFLM; and to follow Alana Golden, Public Information Officer, follow @DFI_Alana. By following us on Twitter, you will be able to track the latest news and happenings at DFI. It's very easy to follow someone on Twitter. And you do not need to send out tweets yourself. Go to www.twitter.com. Join the conversation, by clicking on Sign up now. Set up your account. Select any of the DFI user names to follow, again California_DFI or CAFLM or DFI_Alana. You can follow all three! To help keep you informed, DFI also provides RSS and a Listserv. Visit the following links to sign up. http://feeds.feedburner.com/dfipressreleases and http://www.dfi.ca.gov/publications/bulletins/default.asp#subscribe. For more information on DFI's communications efforts, including social networking, please contact Alana Golden, Public Information Officer, agolden@dfi.ca.gov or 916-323-7012.
• HUD Advances Fight Against Loan Modification Scams - Report a Scam!- The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in partnership with the Loan Modification Scam Prevention Network has launched an online fraud prevention and reporting tool, PreventLoanScams.org. To report a loan scam in English and to report a loan scam in Spanish. For information on preventing and reporting loan scams in California.
• Consumers Warned to Avoid Forensic Loan Analysis Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr., California Department of Real Estate (DRE) and State Bar of California are warning Californians to avoid forensic loan audits, the loan-modification industry's latest "phony foreclosure-relief service," in which homeowners pay up-front fees for a forensic review of their lender's practices, but are provided no actual foreclosure relief.
• Mortgage Modification ProgramThe U.S. Department of the Treasury and Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) kicked off a nationwide campaign to help borrowers who are currently in the trial phase of their modified mortgages under the Obama Administration’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) convert to permanent modifications. The modification program, which has helped over 650,000 borrowers, is part of the Administration’s broader commitment to stabilize housing markets and to provide relief to struggling homeowners and is a primary focus of financial stability efforts moving forward. Roughly 375,000 of the borrowers who have begun trial modifications since the start of the program are scheduled to convert to permanent modifications by the end of the year. Through the efforts being announced today, Treasury and HUD will implement new outreach tools and borrower resources to help convert as many trial modifications as possible to permanent ones.
• Foreclosure Prevention Toolkit - FDIC and other bank regulators are offereing a free tool kit of information that will help borrowers, community stakeholders and the banking industry avoid unnecessary foreclosures and stop foreclosure "rescue" scams that promise false hope to consumers at risk of losing their homes. The tool kit includes critical information to help borrowers know who to contact and what documents they need to have available to apply for a loan modification that could save their home from foreclosure. This tool kit also describes the warning signs of potential foreclosure "rescue" scams and how consumers, community stakeholders, and bankers can report scammers and prevent fraud.
• California Foreclosure Prevention Act - The California Foreclosure Prevention Act modifies the foreclosure process to provide additional time for borrowers to work out loan modifications while providing an exemption for mortgage loan servicers that have implemented a comprehensive loan modification program.
• DFI Consumer Brochures now available in English, Spanish, Chinese/Cantonese/Mandarin, Korean, Russian, Tagalog and Vietnamese - Read and learn about: Who regulates my financial institution? How do I file a complaint? Tips for financial transactions and information on sending money to other countries.
• Financial Tips for Women - Educate yourself, set financial goals, get out of debt.
• 8 Tips for Financial Success - A solid grounding in fiscal responsibility is basic self-defense. Taking the time to learn and practice saving and budgeting, managing credit — controlling our personal finances rather than vice versa — will pay off in the long term. The following tips are reminders of how we can control our finances and improve our financial success. (CCEE, Dept. of Corporations, Dept. of Financial Institutions)

LICENSEE RESOURCES

• Basic FDIC Insurance Coverage Permanently Increased to $250,000 Per Depositor - To help consumers, bankers and others understand how the new law affects deposit insurance coverage and to help consumers verify whether their deposit accounts are fully protected, the FDIC provides the following resources: Information on deposit insurance on the FDIC Web site: Updated brochures on deposit insurance coverage (including the basic guide, Deposit Insurance Summary, and the more comprehensive guide, Your Insured Deposits) and a new version of the "Electronic Deposit Insurance Estimator" (EDIE), an interactive service that allows consumers to quickly and easily check whether their accounts are fully protected, are now available on the FDIC's Web site (www.fdic.gov). A toll-free consumer assistance line: Help and information about deposit insurance and other matters of interest to bank customers are available at 1-877-ASK-FDIC (1-877-275-3342) Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., Eastern Time. For the hearing-impaired, the number is 1-800-925-4618.
• DFI has posted the translated forms required by AB 1160 (Fong 2009) that residential mortgage lenders and finance lenders who negotiate primarily in Chinese, Korean, Spanish, Tagalog, and Vietnamese must provide to consumers for loans secured by residential real property, beginning July 1, 2010. The forms contain a summary of key terms in each of these five languages and are based on the federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Good Faith Estimate (GFE) form. Additional information regarding the forms can be found at Civil Code Section 1632.5.
  - Good Faith Estimate Form (GFE). Available in the following languages: Chinese - 汉语; Korean ; Spanish - Español; Tagalog; Vietnamese - Tính Từ and English.