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

With hours to spare Friday night, Congress agreed to a budget that would keep the government from shutting down for the first time since 1995.

The agreement kept the Federal Housing Administration and nonessential programs under the Department of Housing and Urban Development, among other agencies from closing up.

"It means that small businesses can get the loans they need, our families can get the mortgages they applied for, folks can visit our national parks and museums, and hundreds of thousands of Americans will get their paychecks on time – including our brave men and women in uniform," President Obama said in his weekly address.

The deal cuts $78.5 billion from the president's 2011 budget request, the largest annual spending cut in history.

A story in The New York Times Saturday revealed details of a Congress embroiled in late-hour debate, and a White House scrambling to keep the two sides from shuttering its own doors.

The Federal Reserve will begin notifying winning bidders on the American International Group ($29.26 0%) assets in Maiden Lane II this week.

BlackRock began the process of selling the assets last week to the surprise of AIG executives who were planning to buy the assets back themselves. Winners are scheduled to be notified Thursday, when the deadline passes.

Moody's Investors Service is reviewing two tranches of subprime transactions for possible downgrade after a servicing transfer from HomEq to Ocwen Financial Corp ($15.87 0%).

Ocwen bought the mortgage servicer in the third quarter of 2010 from Barclays Capital. Class A-2 Baa3 from the issuer MASTR Asset Backed Securities Trust 2006-NC3, and Class A-2A, Baa3 issued by Securitized Asset Backed Receivables Trust 2007-NC1 were put on review. Moody's said both tranches were backed by deals consisting of first-lien adjustable-rate subprime mortgages.

These classes were structured pro rata, but the supporting mezzanine tranches are in danger of being fully written down due to collateral losses. If the short cash flow tranches are not paid off before the write down of the supporting mezzanine, these classes will likely experience principal losses.

After the transfer, Ocwen began increasing the amount of modifications on these loans and recouped the previous losses. Modified loans allow the servicer to recoup previous advances on the loan from transaction funds at the top of the credit waterfall, thus constricting overall cash flow through the rest of the RMBS trust, according to Moody's. The credit rating agency also said Ocwen began recouping advances previously made by HomEq and deemed unrecoverable.

"Given that it is not backed by an institution with deep pockets, Ocwen is more conservative about advancing on delinquent loans than HomeEq had been," Moody's said.

Ginnie Mae will require issuers to provide more information on single-family mortgages it pools into securities beginning Sept. 1.

The new information includes eight data elements that would provide investors more transparency on the underlying collateral, Ginnie said in a memo released late Friday.

Issuers must provide combined LTV ratio percentage, total debt expense ratio, the type of refinance, the due dates for the last paid installment and pre-modification first installment, the original principal balance before modification, and the interest rate and loan maturity date pre-modification.

The National Fair Housing Alliance is scheduled to release findings of a year-long investigation into how banks treat foreclosed properties in different neighborhoods.

Over the weekend, the NFHA said the report will show foreclosed property in minority neighborhoods are not kept up to the same standards as those in predominately white areas. The report is expected to be released later Monday morning.

Spreads on agency mortgage-backed securities reached their tightest levels in 10 years versus Treasuries, analysts at the Royal Bank of Scotland said in a research report.

The cause, they said, is a concoction of limited supply, "extremely low" dealer positions and recent Republican proposals to shrink the retained portfolios at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

"Overall, we are negative agency spreads versus Treasuries due to the limited upside and based on poor break-evens," analysts said. "However, the downside is contained as most of the positive factors should persist, especially now that we see no real impetus for much wider swap spreads in the intermediate term due to heavy Treasury supply."

Infinity Valuation Services expanded its broker price opinions and appraisals to include retail and nondistressed properties for the REO outsourcer and its sister company Green River Capital.

GRC recently won a contract to liquidate REO for Freddie Mac. Utah-based IVS launched in 2008 and in 2010 saw an 52% increase in BPO orders.

“IVS was created to provide a much needed service to the industry during a period when timely and accurate BPOs are crucial,” said Brent Taggart, senior vice president of business development and client relations for GRC.

Analytics firm CoreLogic ($17.04 0%) hired Arlene Hyde to a newly created position, senior vice president of strategic relationships for business and information services.

Hyde will help build new strategies and ventures for the firm.

"She is one of those rare people who can make the strategic link to what happens on the frontlines and tie it back to specific technologies and services that can help solve a problem," said Barry Sando, the group executive of business and information services at CoreLogic.

Regulators closed two banks over the weekend, bringing the total for 2011 to 28. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairwoman Sheila Bair has said she expects bank failures to remain below the 156 seen in 2010.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency closed Western Springs National Bank and Trust in Illinois. The Heartland Bank and Trust Company agreed to assume all $181.9 million in deposits and purchase essentially all of the $186.8 million in assets.

The FDIC estimates the closing will cost the Deposit Insurance Fund $31 million.

The Nevada Financial Institutions Division closed Nevada Commerce Bank. California-based City National Bank will assume all $136.4 million in deposits and purchase essentially all $144.9 million in assets.

The closing is expected to cost the DIF $31.9 million.

Write to Jon Prior.

Follow him on Twitter @JonAPrior.