HSBC Fulfills Settlement Requirements

HSBC has fulfilled its obligations under the National Mortgage Settlement (NMS), according to a report released by the Office of Mortgage Settlement Oversight on Wednesday.

The report, titled “Update on HSBC Compliance,” breaks down the results of HSBC’s compliance—or lack thereof—with NMS servicing standards over the last half of 2016. It is the second compliance report the office has released on the bank since February of last year when HSBC initially agreed to a $601 million settlement with several federal agencies and U.S. states regarding questionable servicing and foreclosure practices.

Today’s report revealed HSBC has now met all requirements outlined in that February 2016 settlement.

“I have concluded that HSBC did not fail any metrics for the third and fourth quarters of 2016 and has satisfied its obligations under the Settlement,” wrote Joseph A. Smith, Jr., the Monitor of the National Mortgage Settlement, in the report.

As part of Smith’s review, HSBC was evaluated on 34 different metrics, including items like “incorrect modification denial,” “adherence to customer payment processing,” “reconciliation of certain waived fees,” “account status activity,” and “workforce management.” The review was a labor-intensive process, according to Smith.

Smith described the process: “To evaluate HSBC’s compliance, I work with a team of professionals. HSBC and my professionals follow a work plan in which an internal review group (IRG) made up of HSBC personnel who are independent of its mortgage servicing operation determines whether HSBC has complied with the Settlement terms. My professionals and I then review the work of the IRG. On the basis of this review, I determine if the IRG’s work was satisfactory and report my findings to the Court and the public. The work to test the servicer in the third and fourth quarters of 2016 involved 32 professionals, including my primary professional firms, secondary professional firms and other professionals who dedicated approximately 12,815 hours over six months.”

The bank satisfied the consumer relief requirements under the settlement earlier this year, paying out more than $371 million to affected consumers.

To view the full compliance report, including a breakdown of all metrics, visit JASmithMonitoring.com.