The Government Accounting Office gave the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund a positive analysis June 30, adding strength to FHAs argument the fund is healthy, and a potential green light for lawmakers eager to pass the agencys legislative initiatives. The economic value of FHAs fund has clearly improved significantly in recent years, said Jacquelyn L. Williams-Bridgers, associate director of GAOs housing and community development issues division. And the fund is on the way to accumulating sufficient capital reserves to be considered actuarially sound under the law. The GAO study compared favorably with the actuarial review released by Price Waterhouse June 8. The assessment of the funds economic value exceeded Price Waterhouses by about 6%, although Williams-Bridgers said because of the 30-year durations of the funds loans, both estimates could be considered roughly equivalent. When Price Waterhouse released its audit in June, it showed the fund had an economic net worth of about $4.6 billion. GAO assessed the funds net worth at $4.9 billion, resulting in a capital ratio of 1.44% of the unamortized insurance-in-force at year-end.
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Synovus Financial demonstrated at an industry conference how it is using Microsoft's Copilot to help its staff address customers' concerns.
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The U.S. arm of Spanish banking giant Santander has hired Swati Bhatia to oversee retail banking and its digital transformation efforts. Bhatia joins at "an inflection point" for the company, which aims to be "a digital bank with branches," CEO Tim Wennes said.
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Mariya Rosberg is named Americas head of banking and financial services at Marsh McLennan's Oliver Wyman unit; startup ZayZoon raised $15 million in a new funding round; and more in the weekly banking news roundup.
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Last year, the Raleigh, N.C.-based Integrated called off a deal to sell itself to MVB Financial after bank stocks took a hit in the aftermath of the regional bank failures. Capital hopes to expand its government-guaranteed lending with the transaction.
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Once a prominent figure spurring financial institutions to engage in cryptocurrency, Bankman-Fried's downslide began with the collapse of the digital asset exchange FTX in late 2022 and hit rock bottom with his sentencing to 25 years in prison.
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But the 30-year fixed rate mortgage is still near 7%, and that remains the overhang on the housing market, Freddie Mac said.
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