A look at stories across HousingWire's weekend desk, with more coverage to come on bigger issues:

Any new mortgage refinancing plan designed by the government is likely to be limited in scope and not as large as originally anticipated, Barclays Capital analysts said.

Barclays does not forecast a blanket extension of the federal Home Affordable Refinance Program, but analysts said there "could be a limited extension to loans that are above the 80 loan-to-value ratio as a result of declining home prices."

At this point, Barclays analysts believe a limited expansion of HARP would only have a moderate effect on prepayments for recent vintage mortgage classes.

The representation and warranties issue is dominating discussions over the proposed refinance program. The main advantage for banks under an expanded refinance program would be the institutions' ability to avoid the risks of having to buy back loans.

"A full-blown waiver of rep and warranty risk is unlikely," Barclays analysts wrote. "However, a more limited program remains probable." The firm says rep and warranty risk may be waived when dealing with borrowers who have clean payment histories and who through home price depreciation jump to 80 LTV.

"We do not foresee a blanket extension of the HARP program to loans originated after the June 2009 cut-off," Barclays concluded.

The Federal Reserve will hold the first of three hearings on the merger of Capital One ($51.12 0.78%) and ING Direct USA on Tuesday.

The hearing will focus on concerns raised about the merger creating a too-big-to-fail type situation that challenges regulators and the market. The banks together  will form the fifth largest U.S. bank by deposits.

The Fed is accepting open comments on the proposed merger through Oct. 12. The board plans to weigh several factors to ensure the new banking entity formed by the transaction does not disrupt the financial markets.

UBS upped its estimate of losses experienced at the hands of a rouge trader to $2.3 billion.

The global investment bank said it discovered unauthorized trading within its global synthetic equity business in London last week, resulting in a $2 billion-plus loss.

The 31-year-old trader has since been charged with fraud, the bank said. "We have now covered the risk resulting from the unauthorized trading, and the equities business is again operating normally within its previously defined risk limits," UBS said.

The trader created the losses when conducting unauthorized speculative trading in various S&P 500, DAX and EuroStoxx index futures over the past three months. Moody's Investors Service announced Friday it was placing several UBS equity linked notes on review for a possible downgrade.

A new book by Ron Suskind alleges Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner undermined the orders of President Obama by ignoring a 2009 presidential order to dissolve Citigroup, The Hill reported this week.

Citi was one of the financial institutions that required a government lifeline to transition post-financial crisis. The report is included in Suskind's new book, "Confidence Men."

Write to: Kerri Panchuk.