Most shareholders of Wall Street Banks don’t even belong to their own banks in question.
A federal credit union is a cooperative, not-for-profit financial institution organized to promote thrift and provide credit to its members (who are also its customers). Federal credit union members are provided with a safe, convenient place to save and borrow at reasonable rates, with savings insured up to $250,000 by the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund (NCUSIF). Certain retirement accounts are insured to $250,000.
The key difference between a bank and a credit union is that banks are owned by shareholders, not customers, and are for-profit – which leads to higher fees and rates on loans, since excess profits are returned to shareholders in the form of dividends. Contrast this with a credit union, which returns any excess to members in the form of dividends as an added bonus. A federal credit union is member-owned and controlled through the election of a board of directors drawn from membership. Board members serve on a volunteer basis; one board member may be compensated.
Imagine if ever state participated in setting new laws? C’est la vie to fraudulent documents!
Still shocking that there are settlement talks when an investigation NEVER took place. I’m also surprised that the AG’s going after the banks, are getting absolutely no respect from the other AG’s to follow…
I can tell you that this is ONLY the beginning… stay tuned for others to come forward soon.
MERS is done, repeat done.
Nancy Becker – You Go Girl!
Bloomberg-
For Nancy J. Becker, recorder of deeds in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, outside Philadelphia, property records are practically sacred. So much so that her office keeps digital copies of land records dating to 1784 in four separate databases, including one 1,700 miles (2,735 kilometers) away.
If the county seat were leveled tomorrow, she says, “I could still record documents on my laptop on the street corner with a card table.”
Becker may sound tech-savvy, but to some of her constituents’ dismay, she can’t always call up a property with a keystroke and see who holds its note. That’s because more than 200,000 of her records list the lien holder as MERS, the private service that acts as a proxy for banks that bundle and sell off mortgage securities. That can make it all but impossible for a recorder to determine who really holds the paper, Bloomberg Businessweek reports in its Nov. 7 edition.
Just a quick all-points bulletin, and please excuse my use of this space to make up for research failures. I’m working on a pair of corruption stories and I’m looking for people who may have ended up having consumer problems with certain companies. I’m particularly interested in people from central and northern New Jersey. So I’m looking for people who had either of the following issues:
• Problems with a Chase credit card (or a Chase-related card, like for instance a Circuit City card). Especially if you had, or know someone who had, a court judgment over a delinquent Chase account, please drop me a note.
• A foreclosure involving a home loan originally issued by the now-defunct New Century Co.
On May 9, 2011 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California to recover alleged losses of approximately $154,529,000. The FDIC’s complaint alleged that these losses were the direct and proximate result of the defendants’ breach of contract with WAMU and alleged gross negligence of the defendants with respect to the provision of certain appraisal services.On November 2, 2011, the court issued an order limiting the FDIC’s claims to breach of the contract and granting the Company’s Motion to Dismiss the FDIC’s claims of gross negligence, alter ego, single business enterprise and joint venture claims. With respect to the limited remaining breach of contract claim, the Company maintains that the Appraisal Outsourcing Services Agreement between LSI and WAMU clearly specifies a $10,000 per claim limitation of liability. The Company is confident that it will ultimately prevail on any remaining breach of contract claim.
Absolutely do not miss this piece from Abigail Field – So head over and please absorb the information.
Abigail C. Field-
If you want to cut through some of the nonsense the banks have managed to sell as information about the housing situation, robosigning, mortgage modifications, check out this very accessible interview of attorney Talcott Franklin by Martin Andelman.
Tal represents the majority of investors hosed once by Wall Streeers selling AAA-rated mortgage backed junk, and constantly being hosed again by the big bank servicers of those mortgages. Interestingly, his perspective sounds very much like homeowners’. Yes, a couple of times it gets a little too legalistic, but only for about 5 minutes of the slightly longer than the hour chat—when you hit the overview of the contracts structuring securitization, or any other topic that is more in the weeds than you want to go, take a deep breath and keep going. Most of the interview is in a rhythm and a language that creates clarity I’ve not seen or heard elsewhere.
The Securities and Exchange Commission is expected to be filing charges related to the sale of mortgage-linked securities against more Wall Street firms. These should hopefully conclude the various probes arising out of the financial meltdown, at least in the near term.
“It’s fair to say we’re not at the end,” said Kenneth Lench, chief of the structured and new products unit in the SEC enforcement division in a recent interview with the Financial Times. “There will be a handful of additional cases, I believe, over the next several months.”
The news will affect all the banks (NYSEARCA:KBE) involved in the mortgage debacle: …
Please find some time today or over the weekend to listen to this excellent podcast of Martin Andelman’s interview with Attorney Talcott Franklin, who represents more than half of all the investors in mortgage-backed securities on the planet. Tal’s the co-author of the “Mortgage and Asset-backed Securities Litigation Handbook,” and he’s a very experienced and highly sophisticated litigator. You will learn a whole lot and many thanks to Martin for this super interview.
The podcast is available in two versions… MP4 and MP3. The MP4 version includes a couple of slides that show diagrams of the basic securitization process, but the MP4 format may not play on some computers. The MP3 version is audio only, and should play on most any computer. Most listeners will have no trouble following along either way.
So, turn up the volume on your speakers, and click the MP4 or MP3 version. I loved recoding this podcast. If you want to know more about the foreclosure crisis, you’re about to learn from an expert on the other side of the foreclosures, the investor side… it doesn’t get any better than this!
Even though Fannie and Freddie rely on taxpayers, they act no different than those at Wall Street and are full of fraud.
If you lay down next to dirty dogs, you’ll eventually get their fleas. Double dip in 3, 2, 1…
Let’s not kid ourselves, wall street really controls them.
Bloomberg-
The U.S. Senate Banking Committee will hold a hearing on bonuses paid to executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as congressional lawmakers increase scrutiny of the two government-controlled companies.
In the House, Republican Randy Neugebauer of Texas has demanded information on the companies’ spending, including almost $842 million in Fannie Mae salaries and benefits budgeted for 2011.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continue to suffer losses three years after being taken under government conservatorship. Today, Freddie Mac reported a $4.4 billion, third-quarter loss and said it will seek $6 billion from the U.S. Treasury Department to eliminate a net-worth deficit. Combined, the two companies have required about $145 billion in taxpayer aid since 2008.
It’s one thing is your politicians are bought—it’s another thing if the media doesn’t do their job holding them to account. But what’s a country to do when its very judgesare for sale?
In Dylan’s post earlier this week on Bought Justice, we revealed how corruption in our courts, as usual spearheaded by money in elections, is slowly wrecking our economy.
As he wrote in the piece, “what makes America a great place to do business is the certainty provided by a world class court system that makes sure the rules of the road apply to everyone equally.”
One of the people most concerned about “bought justice” is Landon Rowland, Janus Capital Chairman Emeritus and the 15th president of the Kansas City Southern Railway.
Dylan had a chance to have an extended conversation with Mr. Rowland about the importance of independent judiciaries in sustaining economic development and encouraging investment, the corrupting effect of money in judicial elections, and the danger of letting “the rule of cash prevail over the rule of law.”
WASHINGTON — Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) is set to introduce a resolution in Congress this week calling on the Obama administration and state attorneys general to ensure that any deal reached with the nation’s biggest banks on foreclosure abuses includes full investigations into what happened, awards proper compensation to victims and provides no immunity for potential wrongdoing.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and the state AGs have been working with the nation’s five largest mortgage firms — Ally Financial, Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo — to settle disputes over potentially illegal foreclosure practices, such as the so-called robo-signing of foreclosure documents.
Baldwin’s resolution states that any settlement should follow three guidelines: [...]
