There has been no shortage of reports of state attorneys general seeking accountability from servicers that they allege mishandled foreclosures. Now it's being reported that attorneys general in all 50 states are near to reaching settlements with the nation's top five mortgage servicers, including Bank of America and GMAC Mortgage. The states are looking to develop separate agreements, rather than one encompassing settlement; and they plan to pursue a civil investigation rather than a criminal one.
Read More »Regulators: Completed Foreclosures in Q3 Up 57% from Year Ago
New data from federal regulators show that the nation's largest banks and thrifts repossessed nearly 187,000 homes during the third quarter of 2010. The number of foreclosures completed during the three-month period is up 57.5 percent from a year earlier. The report shows that new foreclosures initiated also rose to more than 382,000. Although foreclosure activity increased during the quarter, servicers reported almost twice as many home retention actions as completed home forfeiture actions.
Read More »Bank of America Embroiled in Another Fraud Suit
A second state has filed a lawsuit against Bank of America for alleged deceptive loan modification and foreclosure practices. Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto announced that her office has also opened a lawsuit against the company and its affiliates regarding its residential mortgage servicing procedures. Bank of America says it is disappointed by the lawsuit and is currently engaged in multi-state discussions to improve foreclosure related processes and programs to help distressed homeowners.
Read More »Arizona Attorney General Files Fraud Suit Against BofA
Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard has filed a lawsuit against Bank of America for alleged fraudulent acts committed after a March 2009 lawsuit. Last spring, BofA agreed to develop a modification program for customers in the state to resolve Goddard's allegations that Countrywide had engaged in fraud in originating and marketing mortgage loans. Since then, Goddard says BofA has violated the provisions by failing to make timely decisions on mod requests and proceeding with foreclosures when modifications were pending.
Read More »SEC Subpoenas Big Banks’ Mortgage Securitization Documents
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is reportedly investigating lenders' procedures for packaging home mortgages into securities bonds for sale to investors. Reuters, citing two sources familiar with the probe, says the SEC sent subpoenas last week to Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and Wells Fargo. The subpoenas focus on the earliest stage of the mortgage securitization process, in particular, the role of master servicers.
Read More »Starwood Property Trust Raises $653M to Buy Commercial Mortgages
Commercial real estate financier Starwood Property Trust, Inc. sourced $653 million last week that the company says will be used to acquire commercial mortgage debt and other target assets. The Greenwich, Connecticut-based REIT closed a $150 million warehouse financing facility with Goldman Sachs Mortgage Company, a $125.2 million asset-based credit agreement with Bank of America, and sold 20 million shares of its common stock to raise an additional $378 million.
Read More »Standard & Poor’s Announces Servicers Must Prove Compliance
Ratings agency Standard & Poor's says mortgage servicers must provide documentation that their foreclosure processes are in compliance with foreclosure laws, or risk receiving a revised outlook or rating from the company. Many mortgage servicers have been under scrutiny recently because of reports of ""robo-signing."" S&P says it expects all residential servicers in its Select Servicer program to prove their compliance with proper foreclosure affidavit procedures by the end of first quarter of 2011.
Read More »Bank of America Gets Low Marks for Delinquency Resolution
The time mortgage loan servicers take to resolve delinquent loans through modification or foreclosure varies widely. According to an analysis by Moody's Investors Service, Bank of America has demonstrated the weakest performance measured both by its speed in resolving the status of delinquent loans and by its proportion of delinquent loans that have yet to be resolved. The ratings agency found that GMAC Mortgage, on the other hand, has generally performed better than its peers.
Read More »Bank of America Will Move Origination Jobs to Modification Department
In order to deal with the influx of loan modifications that many banks are dealing with, Bank of America Home Loans has made the decision to move some of its mortgage loan originators and other staff to the loan modification department. The company plans on shifting around 2,500 employees to the modification side, where they will remain for at least the majority of 2011. That will bring the bank's team of home retention professionals to nearly 30,000.
Read More »Fannie and Freddie Restart Frozen REO Sales
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have instructed their selling agents to move forward with transactions involving foreclosed properties in cases where sales were suspended due to potential problems with the legal paperwork. The GSEs were forced to temporarily halt the sale of certain properties when news surfaced that some of the nation's largest servicers had been employing so-called robo-signers. Now that case reviews have uncovered no evidence of improper foreclosures, Fannie and Freddie are moving to proceed with REO sales.
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