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The FDIC has released the Quarterly Banking Profile for the fourth quarter 2016. Commercial banks and savings institutions insured by the FDIC reported aggregate net income of $43.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2016, up $3.1 billion (7.7 percent) from a year earlier. The increase in earnings was mainly attributable to an $8.4 billion (7.6 percent) increase in net interest income. Of the 5,913 insured institutions reporting fourth quarter financial results, 59 percent reported year-over-year growth in quarterly earnings. The proportion of banks that were unprofitable in the fourth quarter fell to 8.1 percent from 9.6 percent a year earlier.

The FDIC has issued the public list of institutions that it has scheduled for a Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) examination during the second quarter of 2017.

The Federal Reserve Board has released the minutes of its interest rate meetings from January 23 and February 1, 2017.

The January 2017 FHFA index shows that nationally, interest rates on conventional purchase-money mortgages increased from December to January, according to several indices of new mortgage contracts.

• The National Average Contract Mortgage Rate for the Purchase of Previously Occupied Homes by Combined Lenders Index was 4.22 percent for loans closed in late January, up 22 basis points from December.
• The average interest rate on all mortgage loans was 4.17 percent, up 26 basis points from December.
• The average interest rate on conventional, 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages of $424,100 or less was 4.37 percent, up from 4.08 percent in December.
• The effective interest rate on all mortgage loans was 4.30 percent in January, up 31 basis points from December. The effective interest rate accounts for the addition of initial fees and charges over the life of the mortgage.

A consumer advisory on the CFPB Blog explains how an error in enrollment status can affect a student's finances. Tips are listed on ways to catch errors that can cost hundreds in additional student loan debt.

The Federal Reserve System has released December 2016 G.20 finance companies data.

HUD and the Census Bureau jointly announced the new residential sales statistics for January 2017. Sales of new single-family houses in January 2017 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 555,000, 3.7 percent above the revised December rate of 535,000 and 5.5 percent above the January 2016 estimate of 526,000.The median sales price of new houses sold in January 2017 was $312,900. The average sales price was $360,900. The seasonally-adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of January was 265,000. This represents a supply of 5.7 months at the current sales rate.

The White House has announced that President Trump has signed an Executive Order requiring every Executive Branch agency to establish a Regulatory Reform Task Force to eliminate red tape. The task forces are to be charged with making recommendations to the agency head regarding the repeal, replacement, or modification, consistent with applicable law, of regulations that:

• eliminate jobs, or inhibit job creation
• are outdated, unnecessary, or ineffective
• impose costs that exceed benefits
• create a serious inconsistency or otherwise interfere with regulatory reform initiatives and policies
• that rely in whole or in part on data, information, or methods that are not publicly available or that are insufficiently transparent to meet the standard for reproducibility
• derive from or implement Executive Orders or other Presidential directives that have been subsequently rescinded or substantially modified

The FDIC made public its administrative enforcement actions taken against banks and individuals during the month of January 2017. Included were one consent order, six removal and prohibition orders, three Section 19 orders, and four civil money penalties. The larger CMPs included the previously announced $65 million CMP imposed by the FDIC, OCC and Federal Reserve on ServiceLink Holding LLC, and CMPs for Flood Act violations imposed on banks in Albany, Illinois ($58,232) and Lake Mills, Wisconsin ($16,802).

The Federal Housing Finance Agency reported yesterday that U.S. house prices rose 1.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2016 according to the agency's House Price Index (HPI). House prices rose 6.2 percent from the fourth quarter of 2015 to the fourth quarter of 2016. FHFA’s seasonally adjusted monthly index for December was up 0.4 percent from November. The top five states in annual cost increases were Oregon (11.0 percent), Colorado (10.6 percent), Florida (10.4 percent), Washington (10.2 percent) and Nevada (8.9 percent).