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NEW YORK, NY – A coalition of seven major public pension systems called on the boards of directors of Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), Citigroup (NYSE: C), JP Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM), and Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) to immediately undertake independent examinations of the banks’ mortgage and foreclosure practices. Led by New York City Comptroller John C. Liu on behalf of the five NYC Pension Funds, the coalition also includes the Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds, the Illinois State Board of Investment, the Illinois State Universities Retirement System, the New York State Common Retirement Fund, the North Carolina Retirement...

I’d like to start off the year with another piece on the US housing situation as it looks to be heading into 2011, and its relation to the overall economy. In an interesting quote I read, economist Patrick Newport at IHS Global Insight says: "The economy has to recover for the housing market to recover, not the other way around." Thought I'd throw that in there, because it seems to get lost in translation from time to time. Talking of quotes, I was going through the material I read the past few days, and I couldn't find a proper way...

Wow, yesterday we mentioned how Bank of America bought domain names like BrianMoynihansucks.com as a defensive measure. But they did a lot more than that. Deal Journal has the list of all 439 URLs they just registered. They really went out of their way with domain names like CatherineBessantSucks.com (she's the Global Technology and Operations executive at Bank of America) and SallieKrawcheckblows.com.

In the early 1990s, the biggest names in the mortgage industry hatched a plan for a new electronic clearinghouse that would transform the home loan business - and unlock billions of dollars of new investments and profits. At the time, mortgage documents were moved almost exclusively by hand and mail, a throwback to an era in which people kept stock certificates, too. That made it hard for banks to buy and sell packages of home loans to investors. By contrast, a central electronic clearinghouse would allow the companies to transfer thousands of mortgages instantaneously, greasing the wheels of a system...

For many, the bottom line in any mortgage dispute is whether the payments are being made. But Lisa Epstein, a West Palm Beach nurse turned foreclosure activist, focuses on fraudulent practices, backdated documents and robo-signers. Epstein and fellow Florida foreclosure-fighters — blogger Michael Redman in West Palm Beach, attorneys Lynn Szymoniak in Palm Beach Gardens, Matthew Weidner in St. Petersburg and Thomas Ice in Royal Palm Beach — lit the firestorm that pressured major mortgage holders to a brief, self-imposed moratorium on foreclosures until they say they sorted out their paperwork. Attorneys general launched investigations as did the federal government....

It’s apparent that many in Congress have not gotten the message from November’s elections. Along these lines, National Journal recently sent out this news in one of their E-mail updates: REVOLVING DOOR AT SENATE BANKING. Sources say Dwight Fettig, a former Hill staffer who has been a banking and financial lobbyist for the past eight years, is about to become staff director at Senate Banking. The incoming chairman, Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., recently hired Fettig as a senior policy adviser in his personal office. But sources say that’s just a transitional position until Johnson officially takes over as chairman in...

On the third Wednesday of every month, the nine members of an elite Wall Street society gather in Midtown Manhattan. The men share a common goal: to protect the interests of big banks in the vast market for derivatives, one of the most profitable — and controversial — fields in finance. They also share a common secret: The details of their meetings, even their identities, have been strictly confidential. Drawn from giants like JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the bankers form a powerful committee that helps oversee trading in derivatives, instruments which, like insurance, are used to hedge...

First the good news: America is the 22nd least corrupt country in the world, according to a new survey from Transparency. Now the bad news: America's score on the corruption index fell from from 7.5 to 7.1 -- among the largest declines in the world. Only three countries posted larger declines in 2010. Dominica dropped seven decimal points to 5.2. Cuba dropped seven decimal points to 3.7. Burkina Faso dropped six decimal points to 3.1.

Lisa Epstein of Foreclosure Hamlet sent an eye-opening letter from Christopher Meister, who ran for the sheriff of Lee County, Florida as an independent and lost. As much as I’ve read plenty of reports of dubious judicial behavior in Florida, I still find myself appalled when new stories crop up. The Meister letter provides specific examples of judicial misconduct. One involves a judge conferring openly with a bank lawyer on cases in which the lawyer had no involvement. I urge you read this letter in its entirety. Christian Meister Letter on Judicial Improprieties

One of the more amusing moments of yesterday’s House Financial Services Committee hearings on foreclosure fraud was when the representatives for the loan servicers were asked why they were subsidiaries of the large financial institutions. The link between the servicers and the big banks, mainly caused by a series of mergers, leads to all kinds of conflicts of interest, because it inevitably pairs them up with the originator or trustee of the loan. The servicers had no real answer to this question. Finally, the Wells Fargo representative claimed that it was for “customer convenience,” because some customers had their mortgage...

Trying to Put a Price on Bank ErrorsGretchen Morgenson, New York Times KUDOS to the Congressional Oversight Panel for publishing a thoughtful and thorough report last week on the mortgage documentation mess. It argued that, yes, in fact, these paperwork problems may have significant implications for banks, investors and the stability of the financial system. Since mortgage paperwork flaws became front-page news this fall, the banks caught in the glare have characterized the problems as technicalities that are easily remedied. Their responses sound a lot like Mike Wazowski, the assistant scarer in “Monsters, Inc.,” who is reprimanded for not turning...

Watch bank execs explain away all their fraud. Mr. Alan Levitin (Panel Three) is the best. Witness List & Prepared Testimony: If you click through you'll find a link "Click Here to View Archived Webcast" that launches Windows Media Player.

Click through to watch "wacko" Alan Grayson [D-FL] question the Inspector General of the Federal Reserve's TRILLION plus dollar expansion on it's balance sheet since last September. There Are No Words To Describe The Following

H.R. 3808: to require any Federal or State court to recognize any notarization made by a notary public licensed by a State other than the State where the court is located when such notarization occurs in or affects interstate commerce 2:14 P.M. - VETO MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT – The Chair laid before the House the veto message from the President on H.R. 3808. The objections of the President were spread at large upon the Journal, and the veto message was ordered to be printed as a House Document No. 111-152. Pursuant to the order of the House of earlier...

Bank lawyers prosecuting the 80,000 foreclosure cases in New York are all but admitting that the cases they have filed over the past number of years have been riddled with fraud. In the three weeks-plus since New York State Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman put the foreclosure lawyers on notice that any fraud in foreclosure paperwork would be met with severe penalties -- he is making lawyers sign affirmations promising they took "reasonable" steps to make sure the legal papers are true -- practically no new foreclosure cases have been filed, The Post has learned. And existing cases have ground to...

When you meet people who are losing their homes in this foreclosure crisis, they almost all have the same look of deep shame and anguish. Nowhere else on the planet is it such a crime to be down on your luck, even if you were put there by some of the world's richest banks, which continue to rake in record profits purely because they got a big fat handout from the government. That's why one banker CEO after another keeps going on TV to explain that despite their own deceptive loans and fraudulent paperwork, the real problem is these deadbeat...

We have long known that lender fraud was rampant during the real estate boom. The FBI began warning of an “epidemic” of mortgage fraud as early as 2004. We know that mortgage originators invented “low doc” and “no doc” loans, encouraged borrowers to take out “liar loans”, and promoted “NINJA loans” (no income, no job, no assets, no problem!). All of these schemes were fraudulent from the get-go. Property appraisers were involved, paid to overvalue real estate. That is fraud. The securitizers packaged trash into bundles that ratings agencies blessed with the triple A seal of approval. By their own...

If you're wondering why loan mods appear to be intentionally blown off, why banksters advise people to intentionally miss payments to get a mod and then don't deliver one, foreclosing instead, you only need to look right here: 3.12 Realization on defaulted mortgage loans CitiMortgage will use its best efforts, consistent with its customary servicing procedures, to foreclose upon or otherwise comparably convert the ownership of properties securing any mortgage loans that continue in default and as to which no satisfactory arrangements can be made for collection of delinquent payments pursuant to section 3.2. Consistent with the foregoing, CitiMortgage will...

The total cost to rescue and then overhaul mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could reach $685 billion, according to estimates published Thursday by Standard & Poor's. Fannie and Freddie have already cost taxpayers nearly $134 billion, but S&P analysts said Thursday that the government could ultimately be forced to inject $280 billion into the firms because of a slowdown in the housing market. Any entities that might replace Fannie and Freddie would need new start-up funding that would go beyond the money already committed. A consensus of academics, industry officials and investors has coalesced around the idea of...

Now Zee Cat Is Scampering..... ... well out of the bag, clawing people's legs..... Very interesting hearing. But the most-interesting part of it is right here. The largest and most complex harm that may exist with the loans in default or foreclosure today is that the paperwork for the loans was not transferred correctly. I emphasize that what constitutes a correct transfer is a gray area; we need more direction from courts and legislatures on this subject. But there are plausible legal claims that the transfers of the notes and mortgages were not effective to give the trust full enforcement...