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

Federal Reserve Governor Sarah Bloom Raskin said Saturday the Fed will fine 14 mortgage servicers for misconduct in loan servicing and foreclosure practices.

“The Federal Reserve believes monetary sanctions in these cases are appropriate and plans to announce monetary penalties,” Raskin said at the annual meeting of the Association of American Law Schools.

Raskin said the “wave of foreclosures,” worsened by the faults of mortgage servicers, hampers economic recovery. Financial institutions, she said, must understand they hold the responsibility to factor effects on consumers into business decisions.

“Too many of the practices in the mortgage servicing industry have been developed and defended solely on the basis of ‘standard industry practice,’ but many practices were not only standard, but shoddy,” she said.

The Fed’s investigation, which started April 2010, forced 14 mortgage servicers to establish new foreclosure processes. Raskin said this includes loan modification options and a single point of contact within the servicer for homeowners in loss mitigation or foreclosure.

It also includes, Raskin said, an independent consultant, or a “look-back,” hired by the mortgage servicer to review previous procedures.

The servicers, which include Bank of America (BAC), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Wells Fargo (WFC), signed consent orders with the Fed and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in April 2011.

President Barack Obama recently nominated two to fill vacancies on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.

St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said Saturday another round of quantitative easing is unlikely after recent positive economic news, according to Bloomberg.

Bullard said after a Chicago speech that the Fed “probably could wait and see for now” before it decides on the need for more bond purchases.

Bullard’s comments come after a November Federal Open Market Committee meeting, during which members considered more monetary accommodation. Bullard is not currently a member of the FOMC, as St. Louis will take its turn in the rotation in 2013.

Banks can dip below required capital levels in times of financial crisis, the oversight panel of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision said in a statement Sunday.

The committee said its liquidity coverage ratio, once applied, “will be a minimum requirement in normal times.” That standard, per Basel III, does not take effect until 2015.

“But during a period of stress,” the committee said, “banks would be expected to use their pool of liquid assets, thereby temporarily falling below the minimum requirement.”

The Fed said last month that it would “implement quantitative liquidity requirements based on the Basel III liquidity rules.”

New Jersey State Sen. Raymond Lesniak, D-Union, will introduce a bill this week that proposes the state use trust-fund money to buy foreclosed houses, according to The Star-Ledger.

The state would then turn the foreclosures into low- and moderate-income housing, according to the bill. The funds would come from a housing trust fund with fees accumulated from private developers.

The Star-Ledger said the fund sits at nearly $300 million, and Lesniak said the bill could create close to 30,000 affordable houses in the state.

About 38,000 New Jersey homes were in some stage of foreclosure in November, according to data firm RealtyTrac.

The New York Stock Exchange delisted the stock of commercial real estate services firm Grubb & Ellis on Friday.

The stock fell well below $1 before its delisting. It now trades on the OTCQB, which does not have any financial or qualitative standards for listing.

Grubb & Ellis said it planned to appeal the NYSE decision.

In the week ahead, New Hampshire holds the first primary of the 2012 election on Tuesday. Mitt Romney is the heavy favorite as a recent poll from the American Research Group shows the former Massachusetts governor leading with 40%.

Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman placed in second in the poll, released Saturday, at 17%, followed closely by Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, at 16%.

Romney won last week’s Iowa Republican Caucus by just eight votes over former Sen. Rick Santorum. Paul finished in a close third, while Huntsman received less than 1% of the vote.

The deluge of fourth-quarter and year-end earnings starts with homebuilder Lennar (LEN) Wednesday and JPMorgan Chase on Friday. More earnings reports come next week, including Citigroup (C), Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs (GS)

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation reported no bank failures last week, the first of 2012.

Ninety-two banks failed in 2011.

Write to Andrew Scoggin.

Follow him on Twitter @ascoggin.