By now, you have probably heard of the two new mortgage foreclosure settlements with federal regulators, one in which 10 banks have settled for $8.5 billion. (In the other settlement, mega-lender Bank of America will pay Fannie Mae almost $10.4 billion. mostly to buy back bad mortgages it had earlier sold to Fannie.)
$3.3 billion of the $8.5 billion settlement is earmarked for direct distribution to consumers whose mortgages went underwater or who lost their homes in the financial meltdown. Are the settlements fair? David Lazarus says "no" in this column, where he notes that "[t]he average compensation for each homeowner who faced foreclosure in 2009 and 2010 will run about $2,000. That's a couple thousand bucks for having been deceived and pushed
around — and possibly thrown out onto the street — by a bank that was
knowingly breaking regulatory procedures in handling distressed
properties."
In a statement released by several consumer advocacy groups, Alys Cohen of the National Consumer Law Center called the cash payments for consumers "wholly inadequate in light of the scale of the harm."
That’s a couple thousand bucks for having been deceived and pushed around — and possibly thrown out onto the street — by a bank that was knowingly breaking regulatory procedures in handling distressed properties.settlement quote
If I understand it correctly, The Very bank I’ve been fighting with since I PAID OFF MY HOUSE in 2000, then they foreclosed on me in 2005 after they ‘Accidently’ paid taxes and insurance on my house they had NO Claim on and then Used Mafioso tecniques to get a judgement against me is the same Bank that will determine how badly I’ve been hurt and how much $ I deserve ???
What a croc.
BUT if not adequate, I believe it leaves the door open to SUE them for their wrongful determintaion of my ‘Status’ ? I WILL use every option to protect myself after I didn’t fight dirty, and with LIES (like they did) and came up screwed because of that.
What happens to all the borrowers waiting for the results of the Independent Review? Will the $850+/- each borrower is allotted pay for a move?
The dislocations to the economy would have been much less severe if the PSAs were deemed to be voidable and the investor contracts were not held out as sacrosanct. The Bankruptcy Courts could have adjudicated all of the worthy cases as part of what they do normally. Sure, staffs would have been increased but insignificant cost compared to what we have spent to pretend to help homeowners.
In fairness, some facing foreclosure were helped by the HAMP and other programs but a very small percentage.
Let’s face facts, HSBC just paid a mere $1.6B for taking drug cartel money and laundering it. Oh, and how about the movement of funds to Iran and who knows where else that is embargoed? HSBC was the mortgage lender that was proud to say “We don’t have to do any modifications; we didn’t take any federal money”. I know that was said because it was said to me. The special representative from the Office of the President of HSBC (or some portion of it) called me for an explanation when my comment about HSBC was read in the Amer Bnkr or Washington Post. He promised a thorough review of the 7 cases I sent him. NEVER HAPPENED.
Or maybe we look at JPMC and their modification of a first mortgage w/o considering the 2nd which they had while raising the escrow payments for force placed insurance that wasn’t needed. Or the World Bank’s Pick-A-Pay loans that resulted in foreclosures. Or IndyMac Mortgage, not to be confused by IndyMac Bank, which OneWest bought after IndyMac Bank was declared insolvent, and runs the Mortgage company and owns the loans the mortgage company services.
I any any two other people could have made money, and a great deal of it with the deals the RMBS pools rec’d and the participants in the PSAs profited from and, of course, the BankUnited, IndyMac Bank deals.
HOMEOWNERS -WHO CARES – THE ELECTION IS OVER – BUSINESS AS USUAL. THIS LATEST DEVELOPMENT SHOULD MAKE BAIN SMILE
Richard Isacoff
isacofflaw@msn.com
What about the role of the GSEs here????? They are allowing their non party contractor servicers to to rape the mortgagors on mortgages owned by the GSEs. Why don’t the reps and warrants protect the mortgagors?
Our Congress demanded the reps and warrants from the GSEs in granting first the implied and now the implicit guarantee of the GSEs MBSs. The demand for reps and warrants was supposed to protect against the safety and soundness issues presented by their MBSs to protect taxpayers and d borrowers.
It is all a sham known as “The GSE Business Model” in which all of the players financially benefited financed by the borrowers and now the taxpayers.