Credit 911 Sees Something Interesting Brewing at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
 |
Credit 911 made note of an unusual press release from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency yesterday. A formal announcement was made indicating that enforcement actions against Eight national bank servicers and two third-party servicers for unsafe (read predatory) and unsound practices related to residential mortgage loan servicing and foreclosure processing. What does this mean you ask? Well, in short, we all know that the banks have been bad, but now it's looks like Mom and Dad have finally noticed and somebody's going to get in trouble!
Bank of America, Citibank, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, MetLife Bank, PNC, U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo as well as two service providers known as LPS (Lender Processing Services) as well as their subsidiaries DocX, and LPD Default Solutions and MERSCORP, as well as it’s subsidiary MERS (Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc.
"These comprehensive enforcement actions, coordinated among the federal banking regulators, require major reforms in mortgage servicing operations," said acting Comptroller of the Currency John Walsh. "These reforms will not only fix the problems we found in foreclosure processing, but will also correct failures in governance and the loan modification process and address financial harm to borrowers. Our enforcement actions are intended to fix what is broken, identify and compensate borrowers who suffered financial harm, and ensure a fair and orderly mortgage servicing process going forward."
The actions require both improvements in practices for residential loan servicing and foreclosure in the future as well as a correction of deficiencies in those same areas of servicing and foreclosure practices that occurred in the fourth quarter of 2010. In the past lenders track records have been less than stellar with regards to their abiding by modification rules and policies, in particular lender’s often fail to cease foreclosure proceedings when mortgage modifications have been approved. Lenders will also be required to create single points of contact instead of shuffling home owners from one representative to another.
The OCC’s requirements include subjecting each of the lenders to a multi-faceted review of foreclosure actions that took place between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2010. This will include a “look back” to confirm that lenders were in line with federal and state laws, and whether any errors or misrepresentations or other deficiencies resulted in financial injury to borrowers. The really good part, however, EACH OF THE SERVICERS MUST SUBMIT A REMEDIATION PLAN FOR ANY HARM THEY CAUSED!
At Credit 911 we aren’t sure yet if someone will get a house back or any real money for damages but since the litigation is heating up over rubber stamped signatures and unauthorized assignments, this may get very interesting. Check back often so that we can let you know how this all pans out.
Related Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment