The Big Boys are Scurrying….
Bank Of America Joins JPMorgan In Suspending Foreclosures…~
Hey the big boys don’t play to lose, this is getting interesting..loll~jude
Bank of America is joining JPMorgan Chase and GMAC is suspending foreclosure processes in 23 states that weren’t reviewed properly.
A BoA exec admitted she signed up to 8,000 documents in a month and typically did not read them, according to the AP.
“I typically don’t read them because of the volume that we sign,” the executive said.
Banks had been rushing through foreclosures in an effort to reset the teetering housing market. Now it looks like many banks will have to halt.
Bank of America delays foreclosures in Ohio, 22 other states
~hmmmmmm
Revelations keep coming about sloppy and possibly illegal handling of paperwork for foreclosure filings nationwide.
Bank of America said Friday that it is delaying foreclosures in 23 states, including Ohio, as it examines whether it rushed the foreclosure process for thousands of homeowners without reading the documents, according to an Associated Press report. It’s unclear how many homeowners’ cases will be affected.
A Bank of America official acknowledged in a legal proceeding in February that she signed up to 8,000 foreclosure documents a month and typically didn’t read them. AP said it obtained that document Friday.
Earlier this week JPMorgan Chase temporarily suspended 56,000 foreclosures because documents may not have been properly processed. It’s expected that customers in 23 states, also including Ohio, are affected.
He said homeowners should not miss any scheduled court hearings on their case.
States affected by Bank of America decision
Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, Wisconsin.
In Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, the magistrates who handle most of the foreclosure cases plan to ask judges to set a policy related to this issue, said chief magistrate Stephen Bucha.
The court could give companies that previously submitted faulty documents more time to resubmit proper evidence. Or it could dismiss their cases and allow them to file new ones. “We don’t just allow cases to lie fallow,” Bucha said.
Meanwhile the federal Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which regulates national banks, has told seven of the nation’s biggest mortgage servicers to review their systems for processing foreclosures.
“We’ll conduct a follow-up review to ensure their internal reviews were sufficient and comprehensive and that if remedial action was needed to be taken that the action was taken,” OCC spokesman Kevin Mukri said.
The OCC asked for the review after Ally Financial announced last month that it was halting all foreclosure evictions in Ohio and 22 other states while it sorted through a controversy about documents.
Ally was investigating an admission by an employee that he approved foreclosures without first reading the paperwork. Ally, formerly known as GMAC, is one of the nation’s largest mortgage servicing companies.
“What troubles me is that consumers are supposed to dot the ‘i’s’ and cross the ‘t’s’ and follow all the rules or they can be in jeopardy of having deep financial trouble,” said Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner. “But the parties they contract with don’t have to live by the same rules. That’s the way it appears.”
She has asked the U.S. attorney’s office in Cleveland to investigate allegations of foreclosure fraud.
Homeowners with questions can call their mortgage company. They can seek help by calling 1-866-529-6446 for a referral to a local legal aid program. They can also file a complaint with the Ohio attorney general’s office at SpeakOutOhio.gov or by calling 1-800-282-0515.
In addition they can contact the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which can take the issue directly to a bank’s headquarters. That number is: 1-800-613-6743.
Plain Dealer reporter Teresa Dixon Murray contributed to this story. http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2010/10/bank_of_america_delays_foreclo.html
JP Morgan Must Show Foreclosures Are Legal, Brown Says…
~Well of course they are…she says…I can just see all the king’s men [and I don't mean O's] scrambling in their castles..kinda funny when one thinks about it… ;)~jude
(Updates with Brown’s statement in fourth paragraph.)
Oct. 1 (Bloomberg) — JPMorgan Chase & Co., the third- biggest U.S. mortgage servicer, must prove its home foreclosures are legal, and if it can’t, must stop the practice, California Attorney General Jerry Brown said.
JPMorgan is asking courts to delay judgments in pending foreclosure cases while the bank reviews and possibly resubmits statements. JPMorgan said this week it is re-examining foreclosure filings after learning employees may have signed affidavits without personally reviewing underlying records, relying instead on other personnel.
Brown made a similar demand on Sept. 24 of Ally Financial Inc.’s GMAC Mortgage unit, which is being investigated by attorneys general in Texas, Iowa and Illinois after the lender said it would halt some evictions following a discovery of faulty documentation.
“JP Morgan Chase, like GMAC’s Ally Financial, has admitted that its review of key foreclosure documents was a ruse,” Brown said today in an e-mailed statement.
JPMorgan can’t record defaults on mortgages made from Jan. 1, 2003, to Dec. 31, 2007, unless, with “limited exceptions,” the lender had tried to determine whether the borrower is eligible for a loan modification, according to Brown.
Thomas Kelly, a spokesman for New York-based JPMorgan, declined to comment.
Yesterday, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, questioning whether JPMorgan is violating state consumer protection laws, demanded a meeting with the lender to discuss its foreclosures. Earlier today, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal asked the state Judicial Department to freeze home foreclosures for 60 days, citing reports on GMAC and JPMorgan.
–With assistance from Dakin Campbell in San Francisco, Rick Green in New York and Andrew M. Harris in Chicago. Editors: Michael Hytha, Charles Carter.
Parsing statements by Citigroup and Wells Fargo on the foreclosure issue…
Closing ranks…~jude
By Ariana Eunjung Cha
While some of the big lenders have declined to comment how or if they are affected by the paperwork problems that forced Ally Financial and J.P. Morgan Chase to freeze foreclosures, two have issued statements on the matter.
Here’s what Wells Fargo had to say:
Wells Fargo policies, procedures and practices satisfy us that the affidavits we sign are accurate. We audit, monitor and review our affidavits under controlled standards on a daily basis. We will stand by our affidavits and, if we find an error, we will take the appropriate corrective action.
As a standard business practice we continually review, reinforce and strengthen our policies and procedures.
And Citi’s view:
Citi reviews document handling processes in our foreclosure group on an ongoing basis, and we have strong training to ensure that appropriate employees are fully aware of the proper procedures. We require annual training for our foreclosure employees on the proper execution of affidavits, including having personal knowledge of the information in the affidavit and requirements for signing in front of a notary. In addition, we require annual certification of our employees’ understanding of the proper procedures, and managers are accountable for regularly reviewing files to make certain that our employees comply with the procedures. Finally, foreclosures are monitored to make certain that staffing is adequate to review the affidavits properly.
Wells Fargo’s response is stronger. It states outright that the company believes its affidavits are “accurate” and that its procedures are satisfactory, but the last sentence is puzzling. The company stands by its affidavits — presumably meaning that it isn’t planning any withdrawals and resubmissions — but then it talks about taking corrective action if there are errors.
Citi’s statement refers a lot to the processes for handling affidavits: the strong supervision, annual training and certification and reviews. But it stops short of saying that it believes it does not have the same problems documented by Ally and J.P. Morgan. It’s also striking that the company does not say anything about what the company believes about the factual accuracy of the affidavits.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/political-economy/2010/10/parsing_statements_by_citigrou.html
Fannie, Freddie join forces with regulators to remedy foreclosure paperwork problem…
~OHHH it’s a “paperwork problem”…geeee who woulda thought?…I see walls starting to crumble…they need a war to distract us…~jude
By Ariana Eunjung Cha
Mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on Friday said they are taking steps to make sure the companies that service their loans are complying with state law in foreclosures.
Ally Financial and J.P. Morgan Chase, which both Fannie and Freddie use to manage some loans, have admitted to submitting flawed paperwork filed in support of foreclosures around the country–an issue has prompted reviews or formal investigations by attorneys general in at least nine states and federal regulators.
Fannie vice president Terry Edwards said Friday that he’s “disturbed” by the reports that the servicers failed to follow proper procedure while Freddie’s Bruce Witherell, the company’s chief operating officer, said the company “is deeply concerned” about them.
The companies said they are taking action to “reinforce these contractual obligations, strengthen the regimen for review and due diligence on the part of servicers, and protect the rights of borrowers facing foreclosure,” Edwards said.
Freddie’s Witherell said that “it’s essential that the industry work together to protect borrowers’ rights and ensure the integrity of the foreclosure process.”
Fannie and Freddie, which together own or guarantee more than half of the $11 trillion mortgage market, have not been been forthcoming with information about the extent to which the problems at Ally Financial and J.P. Morgan affect them and they didn’t offer any more insight Friday.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which regulates Fannie and Freddie and 12 federal home loan banks, said it has directed the firms “to work collectively to develop and implement a consistent approach to address any problems.” The U.S. government owns almost 80 percent of Fannie and Freddie.
“Our goal is to assure the integrity of the foreclosure process and to see that any corrections in processes be tailored to the problem, protecting the rights of borrowers and investors without causing any undue disruption to the mortgage markets,” the FHFA said in a statement.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/political-economy/2010/10/fannie_freddie_joining_with_re.html
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The Big Boys are Scurrying…. | Project World Awareness…
Here at World Spinner we are debating the same thing……