(Reuters) –

MERS, the electronic mortgage registry that faces multiple investigations for its role in thousands of problematic foreclosure cases, changed its rules to lower its profile in court-supervised foreclosures.

MERS, a unit of Merscorp Inc. of Reston, Virginia, owns the computerized registry, Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems. Mortgage loan giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and several of the largest U.S. banks established MERS in 1995 to circumvent the costly and cumbersome process of transferring ownership of mortgages and recording the changes with county clerks.

In rule changes announced to MERS members on July 21, the company forbade members to file any more foreclosure actions in MERS’s name.

It also required mortgage servicers to obtain mortgage assignments and record them with county clerks before beginning foreclosures.

[REUTERS]

Senator Merkley: How many folks have you designated as certifying officers essentially, temporarily made them members of your company? In order to execute this process?

Mr. Arnold: Well it’s not temporary… its limited… their limited to  7 specific items that they can do for MERS…ahh there are TWENTY THOUSAND (20,000) of those nationwide.

Mr. Merkely: I’m sorry I’m out of time but it’s creating a legal confusion and that’s an issue and I’m sorry. Thank you all very much.

“7 VERY IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS” that may involve trillions of dollars worth of real estate that are executed by any one of these 20,000 robo-signers… But if you read on this image below …it’s well over “7 Specific Documents” more like ANY & ALL!

Actual excerpt from a MERS Agreement of Signing Authority.