Posted on 12/28/2010 2:59:55 PM PST by DeaconBenjamin
A working group of attorneys general and banking officials from all 50 states has gathered evidence in its probe of potentially improper or illegal lending and servicing practices. The group met with representatives of five top mortgage lenders and servicers — GMAC/Ally, J.P. Morgan Chase, Citibank, Wells Fargo and Bank of America.
"We are having ongoing discussions with these institutions. We have also met with groups of investors and a number of consumers … We are well under way with that process."
The investigation came together quickly in the fall, after complaints arose about lenders and servicers using "robo-signing" practices that may have failed to follow proper handling of mortgage notes.
The investigation is touching a nerve, Greenwood said. "This is a very complicated process and we are cognizant of the impact that this open investigation has on these businesses, and more broadly the economy and on the consumers," he said.
The conference said at the beginning of the investigation that robo-signing, or the electronic transfer of mortgage paperwork, appeared to violate proper mortgage handling standards. It also said other practices, including servicers' failure to have a notary witness the transfer of mortgage documents, "may constitute a deceptive and unfair practice in violation of state laws."
Lenders and servicers have said the problems amount to paperwork issues, at most.
The group expects it will reach conclusions in its probe in 2011, Greenwood said.
The multistate probe is one of a number of investigations or legal actions related to the real estate collapse that began in 2008.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission issued a new round of subpoenas to big banks in its investigation. In addition, Arizona and Nevada this month sued Bank of America, charging it failed to help homeowners rewrite their loans as promised before foreclosing on them.
(Excerpt) Read more at mcall.com ...
I’ve been trying to refinance with B of A since March.
Isn't that what the Democrats in Congress did when they didn't even read the Bills before signing them off?
For the sake of the common good all breaking of laws will be completely disregarded. We just have to suck it up and realize we can’t afford the Constitution any longer. In fact, a big round of bonuses is in order! Hurray!
The latest permutation of the foreclosure scandal are ‘false foreclosures’ where banks like B of A and Wells Fargo have been foreclosing on people who don’t even have loans with them. And the courts are not doing a bloody thing to stop it.
“And the courts are not doing a bloody thing to stop it.”
After 6 months of negotiating with B of A, they admitted they didn’t know who owns our house.
What do they claim is the hold-up?
See #6 ... and they keep finding things are “missing” from the application ... I honestly don’t think they know who is holding the paper on it. It’s probably been swaped so many times it’s in limbo.
B of A caused me a great deal of difficulty when trying refinance to pay off our credit cards. There was one delay after another. I never spoke with the same person more than a couple of times. They kept giving me different reasons why things weren’t working out, none of which made any sense. When I would point out where they were wrong... they would come up with some other outrageous mistake. After two months I finally gave up and went to a credit union. Everything went through very quickly.
A week or two after that I got a letter from the Bank of America telling me that they had some type of problem with their computations and they wanted me to reapply because I should have qualified, and they wanted me to call them up and do some type of survey about my satsifaction level because I had been a loyal customer for over twenty years. It was maddening.
When I would point out where they were wrong... they would come up with some other outrageous mistake.”
Had you kept going ... you’d be where I am now, it sounds like. In the mean time interest rates are climbing (which is there real end game, I’m guessing) and it’s the wild west out here.
So what are they going to do about it?
The key problem here is that the Banks decided to short circuit the requirement that, when a mortgage is sold, the new owner of the mortgage register it with the County .... and, of course, pay the registration fee.
So the mortgages were sold, bundled, resold, sliced and diced, but computers were going to keep track of ownership without those old fashioned requirement to keep a paper trail and pay the fees to the County.
I find it interesting that computers can and do keep track of every share of stock on the Stock Exchange, and every contract for every commodity on the Commodity Exchange ... but you can’t go anywhere to find out who owns the mortgage on a specific piece of property.
You can bet your boots if you miss three payments they will all of a sudden "know" who owns it.
They will prove THEY own it with forged, photocopied, robo-signed, robo-notarized, robo-approved bogus documents.
Beware, they often suggest you miss a few payments and THEN they will be glad to help...leading you to a robo-foreclosure in front of a robo-judge.
“So what are they going to do about it?”
No idea. We can not do anything without their permission, though. We make our payments ... we aren’t defaulting, just trying to refinance ... I assume they will let the interest rates come back up ... I am betting we get hit with the second wave of this downturn this year when all the defaults hit. Massive inflation and interest rates into double digits. That’s why I am slogging through this.
We probably have one of those situations as well. Our last re-fi, back in ~2003, was never recorded at the county, so according to the Recorder of Deeds, there is no lien against our property. I chased down an entry in the MERS database showing that the mortgage is owned by Fannie Mae. I'm guessing it was sliced up into mortgage backed securities and pieces of it are owned by many parties. We're staying current on our loan, but watching the situation carefully. We are concerned about whether anyone will be able to give us clear title when the loan is paid off 8 years from now. What a mess.
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