Maryland Mortgage Settlement Update 09/12. Housing settlement details filed in court - Mar. 12. HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan led the $26 billion mortgage settlement deal that was filed in court on Monday.
WASHINGTON (CNNMoney) -- Final details were filed in federal court Monday in the $26 billion settlement to help struggling homeowners and settle charges against big banks of abusive and negligent foreclosure practices. The Department of Justice filed five separate consent agreements, each more than 300 pages, between 49 states, federal agencies and the largest bank servicers:Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500), JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500), Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) and Ally Financial (GJM). Rage grows over mortgage settlement - Mar. 13. Homeowners seek help with their mortgages.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- As more details emerge about the massive $26 billion foreclosure settlement between the five biggest mortgage lenders and the states' attorneys general, a growing number of borrowers are realizing that the deal will do little, if anything, to help them out. Proponents of the settlement deal tout that roughly 1 million homeowners who owe more on their homes than their homes are worth are expected to have their mortgage balances lowered through principal reductions and another 750,000 would be able to refinance into loans with lower interest rates. However, that's only a fraction of the 11 million homeowners who are currently underwater on their homes, according to CoreLogic.
And it's also a mere sliver of the 3.5 million people who lost their homes to foreclosure over the past four years. "The impact [of this settlement] will be small," said Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody's Analytics. 8 multimillion-dollar foreclosures. Dylan Ratigan: On the Mortgage Settlement: There Is No Political Solution to a Math Problem. Mortgage settlement could bring billions in relief - Feb. 9. WASHINGTON (CNNMoney) -- In the largest deal to date aimed at addressing the housing meltdown, federal and state officials on Thursday announced a $26 billion foreclosure settlement with five of the largest home lenders.
The deal settles potential state charges about allegations of improper foreclosures based on robosigning, seizures made without proper paperwork. The settlement includes the Justice Department and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, as well as 49 state attorneys general -- all but Oklahoma. "We are using this opportunity to fix a broken system," said U.S. The Five Things You Need To Know About Today's Foreclosure Settlement. Mark Gongloff: National Mortgage Settlement By The Numbers. Huzzah, we finally have a massive mortgage-foreclosure settlement!
At long last banks will be taken to task for sloppy foreclosure practices that ruined millions of lives. The housing market will get a lift, and all will be well with the world. Except probably not so much. The bank foreclosure settlement will do some useful things -- for example, it will break loose a prolonged logjam in foreclosures, helping to get the mortgage market back to normal functioning. FAQ: The foreclosure settlement. The Obama administration has announced this morning a $26 billion fraud settlement with five of the nation’s banks over their flawed and fraudulent foreclosure practices Here’s what you need to know about it: New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, accompanied by Attorney General Eric Holder, speaks at the Justice Department in Washington, Friday,Jan. 27, 2012, after Holder announced the formation of the Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Working Group.
(Cliff Owen - AP) Why did foreclosure practices come under scrutiny in the first place? In September 2010, Ally Financial halted foreclosures in 23 states after discovering flaws in the way the eviction paperwork was processed. The company’s action came after a lawsuit was filed in which a single employee of Ally was accused of signing off on tens of thousands of foreclosures without properly reviewing the documentation. Foreclosure Settlement Reached: Largest Bank Payout By Far Since Financial Crisis. The government is expected to announce on Thursday a roughly $26 billion deal with some of the nation's largest banks to settle charges of systemic and widespread mortgage fraud, according to multiple sources close to the negotiations.
The deal would be the largest payout to date from banks in the wake of the financial crisis. The settlement, 16 months in the making, could bring significant relief to those in danger of losing their homes and also much needed stability to the long-suffering housing market. Those who already lost their home, however, would receive just the smallest fraction of the money: a one-time cash payment of about $1,800 as compensation. “Their entire lives have been turned upside down and changed," said Philip Robinson, the acting executive director of Civil Justice, a Baltimore-based nonprofit that has worked with thousands of Maryland families fighting for their homes. "Does $1,800 sound fair? The positive mortgage settlement. The long-awaited mortgage settlement is here!
And it looks like a good one. The biggest worry was that the attorneys general would give away the shop in return for big headlines. While in fact they seem to have been quite successful at limiting the immunity that the five banks (Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Ally Financial) are going to receive: In the agreement’s expected final form, the releases are mostly limited to the foreclosure process, like the eviction of homeowners after only a cursory examination of documents, a practice known as robo-signing.The prosecutors and regulators still have the right to investigate other elements that contributed to the housing bubble, like the assembly of risky mortgages into securities that were sold to investors and later soured, as well as insurance and tax fraud.Officials will also be able to pursue any allegations of criminal wrongdoing. Yves Smith: The Top 12 Reasons Why You Should Hate the Mortgage Settlement.
As readers likely know by now, 49 of 50 states have agreed to join the so-called mortgage settlement, with Oklahoma the lone refusenik.
Although the fine points are still being hammered out, various news outlets (New York Times, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal) have details, with Dave Dayen's overview at Firedoglake the best thus far. The Wall Street Journal is also reporting that the SEC is about to launch some securities litigation against major banks. Since the statue of limitations has already run out on securities filings more than five years old, this means they'll clip the banks for some of the very last (and dreckiest) deals they shoved out the door before the subprime market gave up the ghost. The various news services are touting this pact at the biggest multi-state settlement since the tobacco deal in 1998.
Mortgage deal: What the critics say - Feb. 9. President Obama, joined by state attorneys general and cabinet officials, discuss the $26 billion settlement with leading mortgage lenders.
Schneiderman: Settlement deal a `small’ but `significant’ step towards real accountability - The Plum Line. Posted at 03:32 PM ET, 02/09/2012 Feb 09, 2012 08:32 PM EST TheWashingtonPost Since details of the big foreclosure settlement began leaking out, liberals have been watching to see how New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman would react, as a sign of whether the deal is a giveaway to big banks — or whether it contains the promise of real accountability.
In an interview with me just now, Schneiderman — who has gained a national liberal profile for his insistence on true accountability for financial institutions — conceded the settment announced today was “small” in financial terms, given the struggles of underwater homeowners and people who lost their homes. But he insisted that time will show that today’s settlement was a win — that it secured a framework that will ultimately result in a true accounting of the role big banks played in sparking the economic meltdown. Mortgage settlement: Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler to join other states in reaching settlement with nation's top five mortgage servicers. Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler has agreed to join other states in a $25 billion settlement with the nation's five largest mortgage servicers — a landmark agreement that would provide nearly $1 billion in aid to Maryland homeowners who were victims of shoddy and illegal foreclosure paperwork practices.