Economic Musings-

 The wounds on past and present homeowners are still fresh from the housing crisis.  As Jonathan Laing points out in this weekend’s Barron’s cover story, “five million of the country’s 76million mortgage holders have lost their homes to foreclosure or lender ordered short sales since 2006, and an estimated 14million more own more on their homes than their properties are currently worth.  In all, some $7.4 trillion in homeowners’ equity has been destroyed according to Mark Zandi…”  

 Cries for Accountability

 Details of the $25bil Settlement (in the words of HUD) & Public Lauding

“On February 9, the Department of Justice …

[ECONOMIC MUSINGS]

by USRepMarcyKaptur

www.kaptur.house.gov

Excellent view from this NYT’s editorial piece.

NYT-

Last week was a big one for the banks. On Monday, the foreclosure settlement between the big banks and federal and state officials was filed in federal court, and it is now awaiting a judge’s all-but-certain approval. On Tuesday, the Federal Reserve announced the much-anticipated results of the latest round of bank stress tests.

How did the banks do on both? Pretty well, thank you — and better than homeowners and American taxpayers.

That is not only unfair, given banks’ huge culpability in the mortgage bubble and financial meltdown. It also means that homeowners and the economy still need more relief, and that the banks, without more meaningful punishment, will not be deterred from the next round of misbehavior.

[NEW YORK TIMES]

Abigail Field-

Q: When is a deal not a deal?

A: When the deal documents punt on contentious issues, merely agreeing to agree later. 

Sadly, that’s what this “deal” does. This “deal” is a hybrid contract and term sheet, with all the crucial, operational aspects of compliance unresolved. A smallish to-be-dealt-with-later item is the timing for implementing the servicing standards. The biggie is the Work Plans; those have not been negotiated at all.

Yes, part of compliance has been finalized; the metrics, and the basic enforcement structure. But it’s not enough to have metrics; you also need processes for gathering the metric data and computing the results. Similarly you need more than a structure for enforcement; you need how-to details. The not-yet-existing Work Plan will cover all that. Worse, the negotiations will happen while the clock is ticking on the deal.

Servicing Standards Take Effect On a Date TBD

When the deal is approved…

[REALITY FIELD]

HuffPo-

No Hollywood scriptwriter could plot a more implausible story. Here is the plotline sequencing:

1. Bankers make NINJA loans, securitize them, and sell on to government GSEs
2. Bankers destroy all the loan documents and begin random and fraudulent foreclosures, throwing millions of innocent victims out on the street
3. GSEs sue bankers and force them to take back bad mortgages
4. Bankers sell servicing rights for the same bad mortgages back to GSEs, who overpay
5. GSEs resell servicing rights to companies run by former GSE officials
6. Bankers slapped on wrist with puny foreclosure settlement in return for government promise it will never sue them for past foreclosure fraud
7. Government stress test claims banks are healthy
8. Bankers get sweet deal, counting mortgage mods for best borrowers toward the settlement
9. HUD report released demonstrating massive foreclosure fraud that reached to highest levels of banks
10. Vampire Squid Executive Director fires off resignation letter decrying bankster culture
11. Banksters walk away scott-free as statute of limitations runs out for criminal behavior

This would have to be a fantasy because no one would ever believe it could have been true...

[HUFFINGTON POST]

by bloomberglaw on Mar 15, 2012

Naked Capitalism-

I’ve been going over the mortgage settlement documents over the past few days – a lot has been released, with many implications.  There is plenty to criticize.  Subprime Shakeout has a great summary, and David Dayen has done a wonderful job going through the nitty gritty.  Abigail Field has a spectacular review of the problems with the servicing standards.  I’ll make a few criticisms of my own below.  But I think the most interesting parts of the document release were the HUD Inspector General reports on the five banks and the DOJ complaint.  What these prove is what we’ve always known – the law enforcement community knew exactly what these banks were doing.  DOJ simply chose not to prosecute.  There was intent to defraud, fraud, and frankly, according to HUD.

In fact, it’s not clear that the past tense is the correct tense to use.  The Wells Fargo report is particularly interesting on that last point.  Take it away, HUD OIG (italics are mine).

At the time of our review, affidavits continued to be processed by these same signers, who may not have been qualified, and these signers may not have adequately verified certain figures because they accessed a computer screen of data showing a compilation of figures instead of verifying the data against the information through review of the books and records kept in the regular course of business by the institution.

I’m sorry, but WHAT THE $&*@!?!?

[NAKED CAPITALISM]

HW-

The nation’s five biggest banks will pay $25 million to the New York attorney general’s office to settle certain claims related to the use of Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems.

The agreement with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman releases Bank of America ($8.84 0.35), Citigroup ($35.21 -1.24), JPMorgan Chase ($43.58 0.19), Wells Fargo ($33.37 0.04) and Ally Financial from certain claims of robo-signing foreclosure documents.

Schneiderman sued Bank of America, JPMorgan and Wells Fargo, as well as MERS, in early February. The AG’s office said in the complaint the banks “created the MERS system as an end-run around the property-recording system.”

MERS is not involved in the agreement, and a company spokeswoman declined to comment.

Continue to read up on DE & MA … [HOUSING WIRE]

HUD OIG Report | Bank of America Corporation Foreclosure and Claims Process Review

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HUD OIG Report | CitiMortgage, Inc. Foreclosure and Claims Process Review

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HUD OIG | JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A. Foreclosure and Claims Process Review

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HUD OIG Report | Wells Fargo Bank Foreclosure and Claims Process Review

Thanks to Abigail Field for pointing these out for us.

See PP 6 & 7

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HUD OIG Report | Ally (GMAC) Financial, Incorporated Foreclosure and Claims Process Review

Scribd

Does anyone know the judge that is going to look over this case? If so, please forward their name or post in the comment section.

Business Week-

An audit of foreclosure practices at the Federal Housing Administration’s five largest mortgage servicers uncovered widespread failures to ensure the banks had proper legal documents.

According to reports released today by the inspector general of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, banks including Bank of America Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) violated the federal False Claims Act when they improperly foreclosed on homes insured by the FHA.

The audits, spurred by revelations in 2010 that mortgage servicers were seizing homes using improper paperwork, were forwarded to the Department of Justice last year. They formed part of the basis for a $25 billion settlement with five banks filed in U.S. court in Washington yesterday.

“I believe the reports we just released will leave the reader asking one question: How could so many people have participated in this conduct?” the inspector general, David Montoya, said in a statement accompanying the reports. “The answer: simple greed.’”

[BUSINESS WEEK]