Boston Globe-
Earlier this year, five of the country’s biggest banks agreed to cough up $25 billion because they’d routinely fleeced their own customers and wreaked tremendous economic havoc along the way. The nationwide foreclosure settlement was an extraordinary moment for JP Morgan, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, and GMAC because it brought the banks as close as they’ve ever come to taking ownership of the foreclosure fraud they’ve sewn throughout the housing market. But the foreclosure settlement’s second act, now playing out in a Boston courthouse, shows that the landmark settlement hasn’t actually changed the way the banks think about other people’s homes.
The banks might be $25 billion lighter, but in Boston, they’re still trying to shrug off the duty to follow foreclosure law.
The nationwide foreclosure settlement in February landed a heavy blow against the five banks. They walked in hoping to use the settlement as a tool for immunizing themselves against reprisals related to botched foreclosures, but instead of waiving away responsibility for the foreclosure crisis, the settlement forced the five banks to finally commit to ending it.