Posted in Legislation/Regulation, Too Big to Fail Amidst Evidence both Old and New of Big Banks’ Wrongdoing, OCC Again Drops the Ball by Settling Instead of Regulating the Culprits Any follower of this blog or the mortgage crisis at large will — sadly — not be surprised by the seemingly never-ending news of foreclosure misdeeds by the nation’s biggest banks. Recent news… Continue Reading
Posted in Too Big to Fail Crying Foul Wells Fargo has recently cried foul, claiming that the Department of Justice’s latest lawsuit against it in the Southern District of New York violates the terms of a settlement agreement Wells had previously reached with the federal government. And not just any settlement; Wells Fargo is referring to the infamous “Robo-signing” “deal” among… Continue Reading
Posted in Legislation/Regulation, Mortgage Repurchase Justin T. Hilley of HousingWire.com reports that audits done by Quality Mortgage Services (“QMS”) “indicate that many demands by financial institutions that lenders buy back mortgages are based on fraudulent appraisal schemes in an attempt to increase the success of repurchase claims.” According to Hilley’s report, QMS “believes some appraisers are systematically being pressured to use a… Continue Reading
Posted in Legislation/Regulation, Too Big to Fail New York Attorney General Takes On Foreclosure Fraud, Including “Robosigning” New York Attorney General, Eric T. Schneiderman, has announced the introduction of a bill that would protect New Yorkers from fraudulent business practices in the foreclosure process, including “robosigning.” The Foreclosure Fraud Prevention Act of 2012 imposes new criminal penalties for those who intentionally engage… Continue Reading
Posted in Legislation/Regulation, Too Big to Fail Consent Order Issued Morgan Stanley may have sold off its mortgage servicing unit, but that did not stop the Federal Reserve from holding the company accountable for robo-signing and other improper foreclosure proceedings which occurred during 2009 and 2010. The Federal Reserve announced on April 3rd that it had issued a consent order against Morgan Stanley,… Continue Reading
Posted in Mortgage Repurchase, Too Big to Fail Further to Phil Stein’s post on Friday, as we continue to parse through the political rhetoric, the fine print of the settlement agreement, and the hoards of misinformation promulgated by the press, we do not believe that investors in securitizations and/or their trustees are entirely left hanging in the wind. While apparently the settlement with… Continue Reading
Posted in Legislation/Regulation, Too Big to Fail It’s official: The federal government, 49 of the 50 States (all but Oklahoma, the lone hold-out) and the country’s five leading bank mortgage servicers (none other than household names Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, and Ally Financial) announced a February 9, 2012 settlement with said banks regarding foreclosure misconduct and “robosigning”… Continue Reading