In his latest broadside against the banking industry, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is alleging that the nation’s largest banks use the Mortgage Electronic Registration System to evade public filings, shortchange localities of $2 billion in fees and compromise homeowners’ interests. A complaint filed on Friday describes MERS, a Virginia-based digital mortgage tracking service, as “a shell company” established as a stealth mortgagee for banks, particularly JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo.

The SEC brought civil fraud charges today against six former top executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, saying they misled investors about risky subprime loans held by the mortgage giants. The agencies’ two former CEOs are the highest-profile individuals to be charged in connection with the 2008 financial crisis.

In early October, Fannie Mae’s conservator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, asked a Washington federal judge for a stay in a securities class action against the mortgage giant.

North Carolina’s Supreme Court heard arguments today in a case that could decide whether mortgage lenders can foreclose on a home without producing original documents that prove they’re owed the money. The hearing in a state traditionally friendly to banks comes as paperwork problems have gummed up foreclosures nationwide.

In what appears to be the first written decision granting class certification in a mortgage-backed securities case, a federal judge has certified a class of investors who bought securities issued by Credit Suisse First Boston Mortgage Securities Organization in August of 2006.