The five Big Banks involved in the nationwide mortgage settlement have nearly fulfilled their financial commitment to American homeowners. However, they’ve largely failed to make the reforms required by the settlement.
The latest report from the nationwide settlement monitor details the banks’ failure to:
- contact homeowners being considered for loan modifications about missing documents within five days of receiving each application;
- supply homeowners with accurate paperwork before completing foreclosure; and
- contact homeowners with a decision to modify or foreclose within the required 30 days of receiving each application.
There have also been thousands of complaints from homeowners regarding the banks’ failure to:
- provide a single point of contact; and
- cease the practice of dual tracking, in which the homeowner is simultaneously considered for a loan modification and going through the foreclosure process.
Multiple states’ attorneys general have spoken out against these settlement abuses, in some cases announcing plans to sue Bank of America and Wells Fargo.
So, who’s got California’s back?
Related article:
first tuesday insight
California’s Attorney General, Kamala Harris, appointed Katherine Porter to monitor the mortgage settlement in our state in March 2012.
Porter recently proposed broadening protections against dual tracking. Her proposal freezes foreclosure actions against a homeowner seeking a modification as soon as the application process begins, as opposed to as soon as the full application is complete. Porter is in conversation with banks about her proposal.
But Porter’s proposition is only a suggestion to banks. If the $24 billion nationwide settlement has produced little change for homeowners, how will a suggestion fare?
As the saying goes, garbage in, garbage out. Our top cops can police until they’re blue in the face, but the mortgage settlement was garbage from the beginning — it’s just now starting to stink.
First, the majority of California homeowners negatively affected by the Big Banks received no relief under the settlement terms. Then, the settlement allocated the cash so loosely that much of it ended up plugging holes in California’s state budget instead of going to those affected by foreclosure fraud.
So, it’s no surprise that these banks continue to fail to meet the terms of the settlement. California’s attorney general may be better off seeking further legal action against the banks than simply having their monitor kindly suggest they mend their ways.
Related article:
Re: Monitor Finds Mortgage Lenders Still Falling Short of Settlement’s Terms from The New York Times; The “Complete” Application Problem: A Solution to Help Homeowners and Banks Work Together from the California Monitor Program
No only the banks and mortgage companies are at foult, What about the loan servicing companies they use to collect? what about ” Ocwen loan servicing LLC” using outside companies complete ignorants about US banking laws and regulations, and no body to supervise thier work or ethics.
Check the records of people that lost their American dream. due to their missmanagment of record keeping, and R.E. contracts files.
All the more reason to use eminent domain (people power) to level the power of the banksters. Go ahead banksters red line my neighborhood, I’m really scared. How about revoking their corporate charters. We the people gave them the right to exist and we can take it away. We, the 99% are the sovereign. Not the other way around.
I could write a book on how irresponsible, inefficient, and unfair Bank of America has been with me on five loans that were originally with Countrywide. I can see why there was a big “class action lawsuit” filed against Bank of America, but I believe the attorneys involved eventually rolled over to the big lender and got their money but failed to protect and continue to monitor Goliath here.
I tried for 18+ months to get a reduced interest rate on all five loans and submitted over 500 documents via snail mail and facsimile and all to no avail. I have never seen such inefficiency and lack of knowledge on behalf of employees. It is a true travesty here. They continually say “we are reaching out to you” but they are not and they don’t help a whole lot of people.
Chase Bank, on the other hand reached out to my 92 year old mom and gave her a totally new loan at 0 cost to her. It was amazing how fast they acted and so professional with a one person point of contact. We were truly amazed and got 3.75 for 30 years and no points or fees. B of A on the other hand is doing refis under HARP and they want 1 to 2 points, all the normal fees and costs and to top it off a higher interest rate:( How can this be right. B of A is ripping of the country and got billions of tax payer dollars to basically help themselves and not others as they were supposed to do.
The White House, FNMA, and the Consumer Financial Protection Agency are a complete joke and offer no help what-so-ever, although there are a few people who call stating they are going to help you, but they never do. There is so much inefficiency and corruption going on here it is totally disgraceful, at best, and people are helpless to fight all this, which in the end benefits the same people that were given all the money in the first place>
Thank you for the mortgage failure article. I agreed with you.