Breaking News

5 Booming Bank Stocks Poised to Fall
forbes.com | Feb 8, 2012
After the amazing year-to-date run for bank stocks through last Friday’s strong employment report, which, according to Deutsche Bank analyst Greg Poole provided “further evidence the economy is entering into a self-sustaining, self-reinforcing expansion whereby rising job growth creates the requisite income to fuel consumer spending,” the market’s eyes this week will turn back to the dreadful mortgage mess.
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Attorney General announces major lawsuit
hvpress.net | Feb 8, 2012
Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman has filed a lawsuit against several of the nation’s largest banks charging that the creation and use of a private national mortgage electronic registry system known as MERS has resulted in a wide range of deceptive and fraudulent foreclosure filings in New York state and federal courts, harming homeowners and undermining the integrity of the judicial foreclosure process.
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$698 Million Class Can Sue Goldman
courthousenews.com | Feb 7, 2012
A $698 million class action against Goldman Sachs will proceed, after a federal judge certified a class arising "out of a single offering ... of certificates derived from a pool of securitized fixed-rate, second-lien home mortgages."
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N.Y. AG's new MERS suit: Where are the MBS investors?
newsandinsight.thomsonreuters.com | Feb 7, 2012
After New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed his new complaint against JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and the Mortgage Electronic Registry System, I got an email from the AG's spokesman. "Looking forward to your story on the MERS lawsuit in the wake of your inaccurate conjecture this week," it said, referring to my column expressing skepticism that the recently-announced joint mortgage-backed securities task force will accomplish more than the individual task force members have.
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NY AG Schneiderman sues banks, accusing them of deceit in use of electronic mortgage registry
washingtonpost.com | Feb 6, 2012
New York’s attorney general on Friday accused some of the nation’s largest banks of deceit and fraud in using an electronic mortgage registry that he said puts homeowners at a disadvantage in foreclosures while saving banks over $2 billion.
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Freddie Mac’s Regulator Says Trades Were Shut Down Because They Were “Risky”
propublica.org | Feb 3, 2012
Freddie Mac’s regulator gave new detail today on why it halted the company’s controversial trades in complex mortgage-backed securities last year. In a letter to Senator Robert Casey (D-Pa), the Federal Housing Finance Agency said the trades were risky and required specialized risk management.
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NY Attorney General Slaps Fresh Mortgage Lawsuits On BofA, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo
forbes.com | Feb 3, 2012
When it rains it pours, they say, and when it comes to banks and the mortgage mess it has been pouring for five years straight. The latest storm comes from the office of New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, which charged several major U.S. banks with executing a range of “deceptive and fraudulent” foreclosure filings through the creation and use of MERS, a private national mortgage electronic registry system.
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New task force to investigate mortgage-backed securities
pbs.org | Feb 2, 2012
Back in April of last year, we reported on the case of Charlie Engle, a professional ultra-marathoner who had been convicted and sentenced to prison time for lying on mortgage applications. It was a story originally reported on by New York Times columnist Joe Nocera, who questioned why the government had gone to such great lengths to prosecute Engle, while the lenders and banks responsible for the subprime mortgage crisis had not faced criminal punishment.
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Getting to the Bottom of the Housing Crisis
americanprogress.org | Feb 1, 2012
Talk about critical timing. President Barack Obama’s newly formed mortgage crisis working group within the Department of Justice is charged with investigating fraud in the home mortgage market that led to the housing and financial crises and the Great Recession.
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Goldman Sachs Faces Dutch Pension Fund Suit Over Risky Mortgages
ai-cio.com | Jan 31, 2012
Banking giant Goldman Sachs has been sued by Dutch pension fund ABP over residential mortgage-backed securities.
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Mortgage Accord, Foreign Bribes, Municipal Bonds: Compliance
businessweek.com | Jan 31, 2012
States have until Feb. 3 to decide whether to accept a proposed nationwide settlement of a foreclosure probe with banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. that may total as much as $25 billion.
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New Financial Crimes Unit to Police Banks for Faulty Mortgages
ai-cio.com | Jan 30, 2012
A new Financial Crimes Unit, announced by President Barack Obama during last week's State of the Union address, could jeopardize regulations among five of the largest banks in the United States over mortgage fraud and wrongful foreclosures.
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What can we expect from new DOJ/SEC/state AG task force on MBS?
enewspf.com | Jan 28, 2012
I follow mortgage-backed securities litigation closely enough to be disgusted at the greed that fueled the securitization of insufficiently underwritten mortgages issued to homeowners who had no hope of paying them off. Sure, MBS investors and the bond insurers that backed MBS trusts were sophisticated and, to some extent, forewarned about the timebombs lurking in those mortgage pools. But you can't read the voluminous MBS filings by monolines and investors -- including the federal agency that oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- without wishing that someone be held accountable for sending the housing market on a slide, and dragging down the rest of the economy with it.
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U.S. Attorney General Holder, State and Federal Officials Announce Collaboration to Investigate Residential Mortgage-backed Securities Market
enewspf.com | Jan 27, 2012
Attorney General Eric Holder along with Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Director of Enforcement Robert Khuzami and New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today announced the formation of the Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Working Group under President Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force (FFETF).
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Mortgage fraud task force launched
marketwatch.com | Jan 27, 2012
More than three years after the height of the financial crisis, federal and state regulators on Friday launched a mortgage fraud task force to investigate the pooling and securitization of mortgage securities by big banks.
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Additional Resources for Financial Fraud Panel Look Light
news.firedoglake.com | Jan 27, 2012
In addition to the proposed settlement, there’s news on the Unit on Mortgage Origination and Securitization Abuses front. (As an aside, I don’t know what to call this thing. You could say “Financial Fraud Unit,” but there’s already one of those. The name above is the official title, but it’s a mouthful. You could shorten to “UMOSA,” but that’s an ugly acronym. You could say the “Schneiderman panel,” but it’s not his panel, he’s a co-chair. Welcome to my nightmare.)
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Mortgage Settlement Still Very Much Up in the Air
totalmortgage.com | Jan 27, 2012
There’s been a lot of back and forth over the past week as to whether or not the proposed mortgage settlement is imminent. Late last week and early this week, it appeared that a deal was close. Later, Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, ostensibly the head of the investigation, said that no deal would be reached this week. The proposed deal, which may or may not include a settlement of around $25 billion in various concessions was decried in many circles for not pursuing criminal charges in the case of fraud, for passing much of the losses to pension fund holders, and for generally not going far enough in investigating the events that occurred during the credit bubble and in the subsequent foreclosure crisis.
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Raging Against The Foreclosure Machine
njtoday.net | Jan 27, 2012
Like millions of stories from the great recession, this one begins with homeowners struggling to keep up with a mortgage payment they simply couldn’t afford.
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President Obama creates new mortgage crisis unit
addictedtoradio.com | Jan 26, 2012
In last night’s State of the Union, President Obama announced a mortgage crisis unit that includes federal and state officials to investigate wrongdoing by banks related to real estate lending. Sam Stein at Huffington Post got the early details.
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AG backs expanded mortgage probe
addictedtoradio.com | Jan 26, 2012
Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on Wednesday promised to keep investigating the collapse of mortgage-backed securities that contributed to the national economic downturn, praising President Barack Obama’s creation of a new investigative effort Schneiderman is expected to chair.
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JP Morgan Failed to Ensure that Title to the Underlying Mortgage Loans was Effectively Transferred
4closurefraud.org | Jan 26, 2012
Yesterday we put up John Hancock Life Insurance Co. v. JPMorgan Chase | JPMorgan Chase Sued by John Hancock Life Over Mortgage-Backed Securities. Remember, while you read the section of the complaint, that this ain’t no deadbeat homeowner making these claims. It is a big and powerful insurance company.
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Obama Answers Bernanke Housing Pleas With Refinancing Proposal: Mortgages
bloomberg.com | Jan 26, 2012
President Barack Obama answered Ben S. Bernanke’s appeal for more action to fix the U.S. housing market that’s restraining the economic recovery by proposing a plan to help borrowers reduce their monthly mortgage payments.
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The Belated Mortgage Fraud/Crisis Investigation
economonitor.com | Jan 26, 2012
The most interesting news from the SOTU address was the very belated appointment of a mortgage investigation task force, the Office 0f Mortgage Origination and Securitization Abuses.
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Schneiderman to serve with top federal officials in tackling mortgage abuses
polhudson.lohudblogs.com | Jan 25, 2012
As co-chairman of a new mortgage investigation unit announced last night by President Barack Obama, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman will work with federal agencies and state attorneys general to investigate parties that contributed to the global financial crisis by pooling and selling residential mortgage-backed securities. The Unit on Mortgage Origination and Securitization Abuses will be run through the President’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force.
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JP Morgan Sees 'Gigantic' Jump in HARP Refinancing, Executive Says
foxbusiness.com | Jan 25, 2012
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. has seen a surge in residential loans refinanced through a flagship government mortgage program after the U.S. housing regulator ushered through revisions late last year, a Chase capital markets executive said on Tuesday.
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Why all the robosigning?
sfbayview.com | Jan 24, 2012
The Wall Street Journal reports that the Obama administration is now engaged in heavy arm-twisting to get the 50 state attorneys general to agree to a settlement with five major banks in the “robo-signing” scandal. The scandal involves employees signing names not their own, under titles they did not really have, attesting to the veracity of documents they had not really reviewed. Investigation is revealing that it did not just happen occasionally but was an industry-wide practice, dating back to the late 1990s, and that it may have invalidated the titles to tens of thousands of homes.
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Appeals court upholds MERS right to assign, foreclose on a mortgage
housingwire.com | Jan 24, 2012
Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc. has the right to assign a security deed and foreclose on a property that becomes part of the securitization process, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Judicial Circuit held in a new opinion.
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Fitch to Release Mortgage Models as Ranieri’s Lender Complains
businessweek.com | Jan 24, 2012
Fitch Ratings is planning to share its grading model for U.S. home-loan bonds with issuers and investors as industry pioneer Lewis Ranieri’s lender complains that credit-ranking firms are hindering the market’s recovery.
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This Could Be The Mortgage Lawsuit That Blows Up In JPMorgan's Face
businessinsider.com | Jan 23, 2012
Another lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase is brewing in California, and this one has the potential to blow up big.
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Senior Goldman bond executive retires: memo
reuters.com | Jan 23, 2012
Donald Mullen, a senior bond executive at Goldman Sachs (GS.N) who oversaw controversial subprime mortgage trades leading up to the financial crisis, has retired, according to an internal memo distributed on Friday and obtained by Reuters.
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Do BofA filings disclose $1.5 bln in lawyers' fees?
newsandinsight.thomsonreuters.com | Jan 20, 2012
Bank of America's eagerly-awaited fourth-quarter Securities and Exchange Commission filings landed Thursday. The bank reported that its liability for breaches of representations and warranties in mortgage-backed securitization contracts is up to $15.8 billion, with outstanding reps and warranties claims by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, bond insurers, and private-label investors already totalling $14.2 billion.
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One Year In, Schneiderman Goes His Own Way on Mortgages
wnyc.org | Jan 20, 2012
When he took office, Schneiderman was invited to join a small group of state attorneys general known as the executive committee. This group was deep in negotiations with five large mortgage servicers, including Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase. The idea was to get a settlement with these banks that could bring in billions of dollars in aid for hundreds of thousands of troubled homeowners who’d been served faulty foreclosure documents, some of them including forged signatures.
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The mortgage finance lost years
housingwire.com | Jan 19, 2012
The years following the housing crisis might as well be called the "the lost years" since so little has been done to fix lingering housing and mortgage finance issues.
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The Return of the Liquidating Trust
jdsupra.com | Jan 19, 2012
Recently, the Wall Street Journal highlighted the arrival of “bad loan securities.” If this is a trend, and I both hope and think it is, we clearly have to get a better deal name for these than “Insert Bank Name”, Bad Loan Securities 2012-1. Securitization of less than ideal conduit product has been with us since the birth of securitization, but reached its apogee in the RTC series, for non-performing loans, in the early to mid 1990s.
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New Obstacles on the Course: State Foreclosure Laws Continue to Complicate Mortgage Loan Servicing
jdsupra.com | Jan 18, 2012
It is no secret that the housing crisis is a drag on the economy for which there appears to be no quick and easy fix. President Obama’s recent announcement that his administration would revise the underutilized Home Affordable Refinance Program (“HARP”) in the hopes of assisting underwater borrowers was the latest federal effort to assist homeowners during the ongoing financial crisis. As has been the case with each previous federal effort, the HARP announcement comes on the heels of ever more inventive – and, for servicers, expensive – state and local legislative initiatives with the same ends.
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Freddie Mac Announces K-705 Offering of K Certificates Backed Only by 7-Year Multifamily Mortgages
marketwatch.com | Jan 17, 2012
Freddie Mac today announced its fifth offering of Structured Pass-Through Certificates ("K Certificates") backed exclusively by multifamily mortgages with a 7-year term. The company expects to offer approximately $1.0 billion in K Certificates ("K-705 Certificates"), which are expected to price the week of January 16, 2012, and settle on or about February 7, 2012.
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Foreclosure “Squatters” Goad Lenders and Stand Pat
thefiscaltimes.com | Jan 17, 2012
Delinquent borrowers are beginning to see a bright side to foreclosure -- they can stay in their homes, often living rent-free as courts and banks bat around their cases for months if not years.
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Audit Notes: Triple Dip; Bloomberg Terminals; Goldman, AIG, and the Fed
cjr.org | Jan 16, 2012
Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi revisits the tale, reported by Teri Buhl in The Atlantic last year, of the former Bear Stearns executive who now works high up in Goldman Sachs and is being sued, along with his former and current employers, by the Federal Housing Finance Agency for fraud.
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On the Trail of Mortgage Fraud
nytimes.com | Jan 16, 2012
Queens has been harder hit by foreclosures than any other New York borough, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation believes it has found a culprit. Last July, the F.B.I. accused Edul Ahmad, a local broker, of a $50 million mortgage fraud, saying he lured fellow immigrants into subprime mortgages, inflated the values of their properties and concealed his involvement in deals that were ruinous for scores, if not hundreds, of borrowers.
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Redwood bringing $415 million RMBS to market
housingwire.com | Jan 13, 2012
Redwood Trust will bring a fourth privately funded residential mortgage-backed securities deal to market containing 446 loans with a balance of roughly $415.7 million, according to a pre-sale report released by Fitch Ratings Thursday.
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Top real estate market news of 2011
cbsnews.com | Jan 12, 2012
The holidays are over, the decorations have been taken down and New Year's Eve has come and gone. We're onto a new chapter of the real estate story, and everyone is hoping it's better than the last one. There were some positive signs last year, but overall the market remained oversaturated and underperforming.
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More MBS investors take issuers to court
housingwire.com | Jan 10, 2012
Mortgage bond investors are more aggressively launching legal actions to preserve the integrity of the contracts they signed on residential mortgage-backed securities. However, it is unclear if the jump is due to upcoming statutes of limitations, pressures from attorneys to file, or the simpler pursuit of justice.
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Fed Governor Sarah Bloom Raskin Addresses Foreclosure Crisis and the Rule of Law
totalmortgage.com | Jan 10, 2012
One of the most galling things to me about the foreclosure crisis has been the flagrant and apparent total disregard for the rule of law. The rampant and blatant abuses committed in the processes of mortgage origination, securitization, and foreclosure have only started to be addressed in the past couple of years, and we still have seen a paucity of criminal investigations over what appears to be naked fraud.
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Court Eases Insurer’s Burden In Mortgage Backed Securities Case
financialfraudlaw.com | Jan 9, 2012
A typical pre-Fiscal Crisis mortgage-backed securitization began with a group of mortgage loans originated or acquired by a lender that were sold to a trust. The trust, in turn, issued notes and certificates backed by the loans to investors. Investors were promised a return of principal with interest that depended on an ongoing stream of principal and interest payments on the mortgage loans held by the trusts. Importantly, insurance policies guaranteed that the payments to the investors would be made.
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Bear Stearns Asset Backed Securities Trust 2005-4 v. EMC Mortgage Corp | JPMorgan Sued for $95 Million Over Mortgage Securities
thepatriotswar.com | Jan 9, 2012
JPMorgan Sued for $95 Million Over Mortgage Securities (Reuters) – JPMorgan Chase & Co has been sued for $95 million by the trustee for securities marketed in 2005 by the former Bear Stearns Cos over alleged misrepresentations regarding the underlying mortgage loans. US Bank NA wants to force JPMorgan to buy back the mortgage loans.
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GOB explains $17 million mortgage write off
reporter.bz | Jan 9, 2012
The government will write off over $17 million worth of Mortgages owed to the Social Security Board by 782 persons without actually spending a cent, Prime Minister Dean Barrow told The Reporter on Wednesday, January 4.
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Investors Seek Probe Into Wells Fargo Mortgage Bonds
online.wsj.com | Jan 6, 2012
Gibbs & Bruns LLP—the law firm that helped secure a proposed $8.5 billion mortgage settlement with Bank of America Corp.—Thursday said its investor clients seek an investigation into more than $19 billion of mortgage securities issued by Wells Fargo & Co.
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Banks' Worst Fear for 2012
thestreet.com | Jan 6, 2012
There are so many threats to the largest U.S. banks it can be dizzying trying to keep up with it all. Analysts have been saying for months that bank stocks are at historic low valuations, and yet lower still they go.
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No joy for MBS investors in NY judge's bond insurer rulings
newsandinsight.thomsonreuters.com | Jan 5, 2012
Tuesday's parallel rulings by Manhattan State Supreme Justice Eileen Bransten in MBIA and Syncora suits against Countrywide were a big win for the bond insurers. The judge concluded that MBIA and Syncora need only show that Countrywide materially misled them at the time they agreed to write insurance on Countrywide mortgage-backed notes, not that the alleged misrepresentations led directly to MBS defaults and subsequent insurance payouts. Bransten is considered a leading judge on MBS issues, so her grant of summary judgment on the insurance fraud and contract issues should be a boon to all of the monolines engaged in do-or-die litigation with MBS issuers.
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Mortgage Finance Act of 2011 Aims To Recreate Secondary Market
realtybiznews.com | Jan 4, 2012
Senator Johnny Isakson, himself a former real estate broker from Atlanta, Georgia, has introduced The Mortgage Finance Act of 2011 with the goal of recreating the secondary mortgage market in a way that will integrate with the new Qualified Residential Mortgage provisions created under the Dodd-Frank legislation.
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BofA, JPMorgan, WJB Capital, BP, Stanford, Exxon-Venezuela in Court News
bloomberg.com | Jan 4, 2012
Bank of America Corp. lost a ruling in a court fight against MBIA Inc. (MBI) that will help the bond insurer as it tries to recover losses on home loans made by the bank’s Countrywide Financial unit.
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JPMorgan Sued for $95 Million Over Mortgage Securities
businessweek.com | Jan 3, 2012
JPMorgan Chase & Co., the biggest U.S. bank by assets, was sued for about $95 million over mortgage loans bundled into securities.
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MassMutual sues five financial giants
bizjournals.com | Jan 2, 2012
Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. has filed suit against five financial services companies alleging that $200 million in mortgage-backed securities that purchased for the Springfield-based company are worthless.
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JPMorgan Chase and Ally Bank Sued Over Mortgage Bond Losses
gobankingrates.com | Jan 2, 2012
JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Ally Bank are among financial institution blamed in lawsuits over misrepresented mortgage bonds. German lender HSH Nordbank AG is suing the banks involved in hopes of recouping $293 million in losses.
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MERS authority to foreclose upheld on appeal
housingwire.com | Dec 30, 2011
Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems secured a legal victory this week when the Denver-based 10th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld three lower court opinions granting MERS the right to foreclose when the company is listed as nominee of the note.
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JPMorgan, Ally Sued by HSH Nordbank Over Mortgage Bond Losses
businessweek.com | Dec 30, 2011
JPMorgan Chase & Co., the biggest U.S. bank by assets, and Ally Financial Inc. were among the financial institutions blamed by the German lender HSH Nordbank AG in lawsuits over losses on about $293 million in mortgage bonds.
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Panamericano, BTG Sign Agreement to Buy BFRE for $502 Million
businessweek.com | Dec 29, 2011
Banco Panamericano SA, the Brazilian lender that was purchased by BTG Pactual SA after a bailout last year, signed a non-binding agreement to acquire Brazilian Finance & Real Estate SA, the country’s biggest issuer of real estate-backed securities.
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Frontlines of 2012 Mortgage Market Battlefield
loansafe.org | Dec 29, 2011
For the past 3 ½ years it is very accurate to say that the mortgage industry has undergone a battle for its very survival. One of the deepest recessions in our nation’s history, the sharpest decline in single-family housing values since the Great Depressions, and the highest unemployment rates since the 1970s have all combined to make the past few years the most difficult ever faced in our industry. The survivors of this difficult time must focus on being part of the solution and building a stronger mortgage industry.
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BofA, BP, Citigroup, Samsung, Goldman, Intel in Court News
news.businessweek.com | Dec 28, 2011
A group of institutional investors including BlackRock Inc. persuaded a federal appeals court to consider its request to return an $8.5 billion bond settlement with Bank of America Corp. to state court for a judge's approval.
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The Mortgage Battlefield of 2012: A View From the Frontlines
nationalmortgageprofessional.com | Dec 28, 2011
For the past three-and-a-half years, it is very accurate to say that the mortgage industry has undergone a battle for its very survival. One of the deepest recessions in our nation’s history, the sharpest decline in single-family housing values since the Great Depressions, and the highest unemployment rates since the 1970s have all combined to make the past few years the most difficult ever faced in our industry. The survivors of this difficult time must focus on being part of the solution and building a stronger mortgage industry.
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Details of Mortgage Servicing Settlement Between Banks and AGs Begin to Emerge
swampland.time.com | Dec 27, 2011
The never-ending negotiations between the 50 state attorneys general (minus a few big ones) and five major banks over penalties and standards for past, present and future mortgage servicing are finally ending, and some details are beginning to emerge from sources familiar with the deal. The big number is the $25 billion that the banks will commit to three categories of the settlement: $5 billion in cash payments, mostly to the states, $3 billion in refinancing for underwater mortgages, and $17 billion in principal reduction.
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FINRA fines Barclays $3 million for subprime MBS misrepresentations
housingwire.com | Dec 27, 2011
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority fined Barclays Capital $3 million for allegedly misrepresenting delinquency data on residential subprime mortgage securitizations issued by the bank.
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Bank Of America Could End Up Paying $53 Billion For Countrywide Mess
forbes.com | Dec 26, 2011
This week Bank of America agreed to pay $335 million to settle racial discriminatory lending charges, but that is just a drop in the bucket compared with what it could end up paying for the problems stemming from Countrywide.
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Details of Mortgage Servicing Settlement Between Banks and AGs Begin to Emerge
swampland.time.com | Dec 26, 2011
The never-ending negotiations between the 50 state attorneys general (minus a few big ones) and five major banks over penalties and standards for past, present and future mortgage servicing are finally ending, and some details are beginning to emerge from sources familiar with the deal. The big number is the $25 billion that the banks will commit to three categories of the settlement: $5 billion in cash payments, mostly to the states, $3 billion in refinancing for underwater mortgages, and $17 billion in principal reduction.
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An Unlikely Bulldog for Mortgage Investors
online.wsj.com | Dec 22, 2011
This summer, Ms. Patrick, a Houston lawyer with a 33-person firm called Gibbs & Bruns, extracted an agreement from Bank of America Corp. to pay $8.5 billion to investors who bought flawed mortgage bonds issued before the housing market collapsed. On Friday, she announced her next target: J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.
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Rep. Scott Garrett Chairs Hearing to Examine Private Mortgage Market Investment Act
thestatecolumn.com | Dec 22, 2011
Today, the subcommittee is holding a second legislative hearing on the Private Mortgage Market Investment Act. This subcommittee held a hearing on the bill on November 3rd. Since then, I have been actively reaching out to and working with regulators, market participants, and other members on this committee to make improvements to the bill. I understand this is a complex issue and I welcome another opportunity to hear from the public on the merits of the bill.
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Harris Sues Fannie and Freddie for Information in Mortgage Investigation
firedoglake.com | Dec 21, 2011
Kamala Harris, the Attorney General of California, sued government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over information on foreclosures in California. Rather than the endpoint of the investigation, this is the beginning of it; Harris wants information out of Fannie and Freddie that they have so far been unwilling to provide.
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Rep. Scott Garrett Chairs Hearing to Examine Private Mortgage Market Investment Act
thestatecolumn.com | Dec 21, 2011
Rep. Scott Garrett, Chairman of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government-Sponsored Enterprises, delivered the following opening statement today at a hearing to review legislation to reform the secondary mortgage market.
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NY, Federal Officials Agree to Cooperate in Mortgage Securitization Investigations
forextv.com | Dec 21, 2011
A partnership will enable federal officials to cooperate with officials from New York in investigating the mortgage securitization practices of large financial institutions that resulted in the credit crisis of 2008.
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Ally Financial Sued by DZ Bank on Mortgage-Backed Securities
bloomberg.com | Dec 15, 2011
Ally Financial Inc. and Bank of America Corp. were sued by DZ Bank AG over the sale of $289.8 million of residential mortgage-backed securities. The defendants were “actively involved” in all aspects of the securitization of the products, acting as underwriters, broker-dealers and guarantors, DZ, the central bank for German cooperative banks, said in a complaint filed yesterday in New York State Supreme Court.
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Loan Audits Can Help You Get a Loan Modification
ourstory.com | Dec 14, 2011
Millions of people need help. We are still feeling the effects of the outright greed of predatory lenders such as Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, US Bank, GMAC, Wells Fargo and others. It did seem like we might have made it through the worst of it as foreclosure rates, while remaining high, started to go down, but this was only because 23 states that perform judicial reviews on all foreclosure suits halted foreclosure proceedings because of the widespread institutionalized mortgage fraud being committed by lenders, which resulted in untold amounts of people losing their home who never should have.
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With Eviction Fight, Mashpee Woman Wades Deep Into Foreclosure Mess
capenews.net | Dec 16, 2011
Rhonda G. Mills’ five-year-long endeavor to save her home is coming down to the wire. The Mashpee resident and member of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe is scheduled to appear before a judge in Falmouth District Court on Monday morning for an eviction hearing, the latest stage in the foreclosure and eviction process that stands to kick her and her family out of her home on Emma Oakley Mills Road.
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How Did We Get Here?
huffingtonpost.com | Dec 15, 2011
The increased use of mortgage-backed securities created a fundamental shift or new paradigm in the mortgage lending industry. Whereas traditional lending practices required prudence in lending only to credit-worthy borrowers, now the concern regarding repayment was removed, as the original lender as "off the hook" once his loan was packaged in a mortgage pool.
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Ally Financial Sued by DZ Bank on Mortgage-Backed Securities
bloomberg.com | Dec 15, 2011
Ally Financial Inc. and Bank of America Corp. were sued by DZ Bank AG over the sale of $289.8 million of residential mortgage-backed securities. The defendants were “actively involved” in all aspects of the securitization of the products, acting as underwriters, broker-dealers and guarantors, DZ, the central bank for German cooperative banks, said in a complaint filed yesterday in New York State Supreme Court.
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Loan Audits Can Help You Get a Loan Modification
ourstory.com | Dec 14, 2011
Millions of people need help. We are still feeling the effects of the outright greed of predatory lenders such as Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, US Bank, GMAC, Wells Fargo and others. It did seem like we might have made it through the worst of it as foreclosure rates, while remaining high, started to go down, but this was only because 23 states that perform judicial reviews on all foreclosure suits halted foreclosure proceedings because of the widespread institutionalized mortgage fraud being committed by lenders, which resulted in untold amounts of people losing their home who never should have.
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Servicing: the Who's, What's, Why's, FHFA, and the MBA; Mortgage Company Profits
mortgagenewsdaily.com | Dec 13, 2011
The MBA reported that, "Independent mortgage banks and subsidiaries made an average profit of $1,263 on each loan they originated in the third quarter of 2011, up from $575 per loan in the second quarter of 2011, according to the MBA Third Quarter 2011 Mortgage Bankers Performance Report.
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Bank of America lawyer says settlement challenger is Baupost
sbnonline.com | Dec 9, 2011
Walnut Place, a group of undisclosed investors who oppose Bank of America Corp’s. $8.5 billion mortgage bond settlement, is the Baupost Group, a distressed debt fund, according to an attorney for the bank.
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Realtors Applaud Bill to Protect Taxpayers From Mortgage Industry Bailouts
marketwatch.com | Dec 8, 2011
The National Association of Realtors supports legislation introduced today that provides sensible reform of the secondary mortgage market and protects the interest of taxpayers.
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CoreLogic Testifies on Real Estate Securitization Before House Subcommittee
sacbee.com | Dec 8, 2011
Representatives of CoreLogic, a leading provider of information, analytics and business services, testified today before the Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises subcommittee as the U.S. House takes up legislation aimed to reform the secondary mortgage market.
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Realtors, MBA Testify at Hearing on Private Secondary Market Legislation
mortgagenewsdaily.com | Dec 8, 2011
Members of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets and the Government Sponsored Enterprises heard testimony from six market participants at a hearing Wednesday on The Private Mortgage Market Investment Act. The bill is one of eight proposed in the current session by majority members of the committee to restructure various aspects of the country's housing finance industry.
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U.S. regulators may rework mortgage plan-sources
newsandinsight.thomsonreuters.com | Dec 7, 2011
U.S. regulators may revisit a proposed definition of mortgages that would be considered so sound that originators would not be required to maintain a stake in the loan, sources close to the matter say.
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California, Nevada Join Forces in Mortgage Fraud Probes
businessweek.com | Dec 7, 2011
California and Nevada will jointly investigate mortgage fraud, as attorneys general across the U.S. continue negotiating a possible settlement with banks to resolve probes into their foreclosure practices.
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3-BofA Merrill unit in $315 mln mortgage settlement
reuters.com | Dec 6, 2011
Bank of America Corp agreed to pay $315 million to settle claims by investors who said they were misled about mortgage securities offerings by its Merrill Lynch unit.
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After Deal, Freddie Mac CMBS Volume Doubles 2010's
online.wsj.com | Dec 6, 2011
Freddie Mac (FMCC) will issue its 12th commercial mortgage-backed security of the year this week, raising 2011 volume to a level that doubles last year's and keeping government programs on track to surpass private issuance for another 12 months.
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First major state lawsuit filed over 'robo-signing'
usatoday.com | Dec 5, 2011
After a year of fruitless negotiations between major banks and the nation's state attorneys general, Massachusetts has filed the first major lawsuit over so-called "robo-signing" foreclosure processing.
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Massachusetts Sues 5 Major Banks Over Foreclosure Practices
nytimes.com | Dec 1, 2011
Citing extensive abuses of troubled borrowers across Massachusetts, the state’s attorney general sued the nation’s five largest mortgage lenders on Thursday, seeking relief for consumers hurt by what she called unfair and deceptive business practices.
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First Major State Lawsuit Filed Over ‘Robo-Signing’
cnbc.com | Dec 1, 2011
After a year of fruitless negotiations between major U.S. banks and the nation's state attorneys general, Massachusetts has filed the first major lawsuit over so-called "robo-signing" foreclosure processing.
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Common Threads in Mortgage-Backed Securities Cases
deadlyclear.wordpress.com | Dec 1, 2011
Four years past the beginning of the collapse of the U.S. housing market, there are scores of class action and individual lawsuits involving the origination and securitization of residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS).
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Coming Home to Roost – Congressional Oversight Panel, “Banks cannot prove they own the loans…”
deadlyclear.wordpress.com | Nov 30, 2011
In the recent filing November 9, 2011 of an Ohio case, Deutsche v. Holden, in the Court of Common Pleas in Summit County, (Akron) Ohio, defense attorneys submit that the note had not been transferred pursuant to the PSA therefore the foreclosing entity (Deutsche) did not own the note and mortgage.
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Negative Equity Dips Slightly, 10.7 Million Homes Still Underwater
totalmortgage.com | Nov 30, 2011
Yesterday CoreLogic published its Third Quarter Negative Equity Report. Although negative equity declined somewhat, 10.7 million homes with mortgages are still underwater, comprising 22.1 percent of all residential homes with mortgages. This is down from the second quarter, where 10.9 million homes and 22.5% of homeowners with mortgages were underwater. An additional 2.4 million homes have less than five percent equity.
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Royal Bank of Scotland to Pay $52 Million for Securitization Role in Subprime Mortgage Meltdown
insurancenewsnet.com | Nov 30, 2011
RBS Financial Products Inc. ("RBS") will pay $52 Million to settle allegations that it financed, purchased, and securitized residential loans that were presumptively unfair under Massachusetts law, Attorney General Martha Coakley announced today. The company, formerly known as Greenwich Capital Financial Products, Inc., is a subsidiary of the Royal Bank of Scotland.
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JPMorgan Sued by BayernLB Over Mortgage-Backed Securities
reuters.com | Nov 30, 2011
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), the biggest U.S. bank by assets, was sued for fraud by German lender Bayerische Landesbank over losses on about $2.1 billion in mortgage-backed securities.
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Guggenheim Partners' Affiliate, Pillar Multifamily, Announces Correspondent Agreement with Tremont Realty Capital
marketwatch.com | Nov 28, 2011
Pillar Multifamily, LLC, an affiliate of Guggenheim Partners, and Tremont Realty Capital, LLC (Tremont) today announced their correspondent agreement effective immediately.
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U.S. Foreclosure Fraud in a Nutshell, How Average Joe's Home Was Stolen
marketoracle.co.uk | Nov 28, 2011
The untold story in the foreclosure crisis unfolding across America is that, following a foreclosure perpetrated by one of the October 2008 Bailout Banks (e.g. Bank of America, Citibank, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo) Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac suddenly appear as the record owner of Average Joe’s home. These federal government sponsored entities then go into local housing court and get a court order authorizing them to evict Joe. If Joe resists, these supposedly charitable institutions obtain a writ ordering the local sheriff to forcibly remove Joe from his home.
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Forensic Loan Audit forces Dune to present one family a Principal Reduction Debt Modification
ratesforrefinance.net | Nov 26, 2011
Jack Corry had a Pick-a-Pay adjustable rate loan and pre-payment penalties near Wachovia. Inert gas tried to get a loan modification, but his lender didnt poverty to work with him.
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CBN considers liquidity facility for PMIs to rebuild market confidence
businessdayonline.com | Nov 23, 2011
Against the backdrop of the dwindling fortunes of some primary mortgage institutions (PMIs) as primary lenders to housing development, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is considering a Mortgage Liquidity Facility (MLF)/Mortgage Refinancing Company (MRC) for the mortgage sector of the financial system.
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MERS v Groves Quiet Title Victory in Texas
Nancy Groves sued Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. (MERS), as nominee for Greenspoint Funding, to invalidate a deed of trust securing MERS’s alleged lien on Groves’s property. The trial court entered a default judgment against MERS, which then filed this restricted appeal. We affirm.
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DBRS says Corker Bill will Revitalize Private RMBS Market
housingwire.com | Nov 22, 2011
Ratings agency DBRS says a proposed Senate bill to wind down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, while creating a national mortgage registry is the right remedy for sluggish private-market mortgage securitization.
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U.S. Foreclosure Fraud in a Nutshell, How Average Joe's Home Was Stolen
marketoracle.co.uk | Nov 28, 2011
The untold story in the foreclosure crisis unfolding across America is that, following a foreclosure perpetrated by one of the October 2008 Bailout Banks (e.g. Bank of America, Citibank, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo) Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac suddenly appear as the record owner of Average Joe’s home. These federal government sponsored entities then go into local housing court and get a court order authorizing them to evict Joe. If Joe resists, these supposedly charitable institutions obtain a writ ordering the local sheriff to forcibly remove Joe from his home.
Read More

Forensic Loan Audit forces Dune to present one family a Principal Reduction Debt Modification
ratesforrefinance.net | Nov 26, 2011
Jack Corry had a Pick-a-Pay adjustable rate loan and pre-payment penalties near Wachovia. Inert gas tried to get a loan modification, but his lender didnt poverty to work with him.
Read More

CBN considers liquidity facility for PMIs to rebuild market confidence
businessdayonline.com | Nov 23, 2011
Against the backdrop of the dwindling fortunes of some primary mortgage institutions (PMIs) as primary lenders to housing development, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is considering a Mortgage Liquidity Facility (MLF)/Mortgage Refinancing Company (MRC) for the mortgage sector of the financial system.
Read More

MERS v Groves Quiet Title Victory in Texas
Nancy Groves sued Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. (MERS), as nominee for Greenspoint Funding, to invalidate a deed of trust securing MERS’s alleged lien on Groves’s property. The trial court entered a default judgment against MERS, which then filed this restricted appeal. We affirm.
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DBRS says Corker Bill will Revitalize Private RMBS Market
housingwire.com | Nov 22, 2011
Ratings agency DBRS says a proposed Senate bill to wind down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, while creating a national mortgage registry is the right remedy for sluggish private-market mortgage securitization.
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N.Y., Delaware Can Intervene in BofA $8.5 Billion Settlement
bloomberg.com | Nov 22, 2011
New York and Delaware won court permission to participate in litigation over Bank of America Corp. (BAC)’s proposed $8.5 billion mortgage-bond settlement, defeating opposition by Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (BK), the trustee for investors.
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The big lie about the economic crisis, explained
bangordailynews.com | Nov 21, 2011
As a percentage of all mortgage-backed securities, private securitization grew from 23 percent in 2003 to 56 percent in 2006. These firms had business models that could be called “Lend-in-order-to-sell-to-Wall-Street-securitizers.
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Housing market still in recovery
bostonglobe.com | Nov 19, 2011
More than six years after the housing downturn began in Massachusetts, home sales are still painfully slow. Values remain 15 percent below their peak. Foreclosures, which slowed as banks wrestled with legal problems, appear to be accelerating again.
Read More.

Mortgage-Backed Securitization: International Experience and Practice in China
business-finance.org | Nov 18, 2011
Securitization, which began from MBS, is the most dynamic financial innovation in the world’s capital market since the 1970s. In more than 30 years, it’s preferred by lots of commercial banks. In America, Securitization accounted for half of the housing mortgaged loan and MBS reached 5.3 trillion U.S. dollars in the late 2003.
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Nevada AG drops criminal indictments on robosigners
americablog.com | Nov 18, 2011
Earlier this week Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto indicted two mid-level employees of Lender Processing Services (LPS) for 606 counts of robosigning, specifically "directing fraudulent notarization and filing of foreclosure documents." LPS is a major company hired by banks to process foreclosure documents and has been at the center of the robosigning scandal. LPS would allegedly help banks forge documents that were used to foreclose on homeowners in situations where the banks didn't have any of the required documentation to prove that they had a right to foreclose.
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Congress eyes help for big first-time homeowners - Provision in must-pass spending bill could hike taxpayer costs
marketwatch.com | Nov 18, 2011
That’s because lawmakers on Capitol Hill have included a provision in a must-pass spending bill that would allow borrowers seeking to buy more expensive homes to participate in a Federal Housing Administration program, allowing them to qualify for special lower down-payments.
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Freddie Mac to Securitize Previously Delinquent Mortgage Loans That Have Been Reinstated to Performing Status
online.wsj.com | Nov 17, 2011
Freddie Mac announced today that it will begin securitizing certain mortgage loans that previously were delinquent and that the company had purchased from its related Mortgage Participation Certificate (PC) pools. These mortgage loans have been reinstated to current, performing status and have not been modified.
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Fannie, Freddie Subpoenaed by California AG for Investigation into Mortgage Abuses
totalmortgage.com | Nov 17, 2011
Yesterday Alejandro Lazo and Jim Puzzanghera of the Los Angeles Times reported that California Attorney General Kamala Harris has subpoenaed government sponsored entities (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as part of an investigation in mortgage origination, securitization, and foreclosure practices.
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J.P. Morgan to Revive Bad-Loan Securities
online.wsj.com | Nov 16, 2011
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. plans next year to issue the first U.S. commercial mortgage-backed securities supported by defaulted loans since the 1990s, as it revives a practice that regulators used to extricate the nation from the savings & loan crisis.
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Obama Must Help Homeowners Rather Than Banks
newsmax.com | Nov 16, 2011
A New York Times editorial of Nov. 9 sounded the alarm concerning what I would refer to as the Great Bank Heist. The robbery, however, is not of the banks, but by them, with the Obama administration, I regret to say, helping them, in effect, to rob the public.
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'Put-Back' Relief At Center Of Harp Mortgage Fix
marketwatch.com | Nov 15, 2011
At issue is the White House’s Home Affordable Refinance Program, which seeks to provide refinancing options to underwater borrowers who have no equity in their homes, as long as their mortgage is backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-controlled housing giants.
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The Housing Recovery Will Take Many Years
realclearmarkets.com | Nov 14, 2011
We Americans think of ourselves as problem-solvers, but the housing collapse has so far eluded all solutions. Perhaps 10 million homes have gone into foreclosure since 2006; millions more will follow. From their peaks during the real-estate bubble, home prices are down 30 percent, new housing construction has dropped 75 percent and existing home sales are off almost 30 percent. Housing's collapse is one reason the economic recovery is so weak. Construction remains depressed, as are the appliance and furniture sales spurred by home buying.
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Mortgage Fraud: State a Holdout in Bank Settlement
sfgate.com | Nov 13, 2011
With all due respect to the Occupy Wall Street movement and its local offshoots, there are some real battles being waged on behalf of members of the 99 percent that have little do with tent encampments, general strikes and shutting down the Port of Oakland.
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Avid Law Center Fights for Homeowners by Filing Wrongful Foreclosure Lawsuit
marketwatch.com | Nov 11, 2011
Avid Law Center, an Orange County, California-based real estate and litigation law firm, continued its fight for homeowners by filing a recent lawsuit against Bank of America and others involved in the mortgage securitization process. The action alleges a number of legal violations including the lender's lack of ability to foreclose on the property and their engagement in unfair foreclosure business practices by using improper securitization and "robo-signed" documents.
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If Wall Street Is So Smart, Why Hasn't It Fixed the U.S. Mortgage Market?
theatlantic.com | Nov 11, 2011
Here's something you'll rarely see cited as a problem: The U.S. has too little financial innovation. The creativity of bankers and traders is one thing that enables them to make so much money. They think up fancy solutions to financial problems. Sometimes these involve complicated new securities designed by a couple of math Ph.Ds and may be well-understood by only a handful of people.
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Presented by Certified Forensic Loan Auditors, LLC ~ Mortgage Securitization Auditor Training Certification "MSA" Dec 16-18, 2011 in San Diego, CA
certifiedforensicloanauditors.com | Nov 10, 2011
Study and learn important topics related to Mortgage Securitization, terminology, and borrower documents, SEC Search Techniques, SPV search, document review, MERS search, GSE search, Assignments, Separation of Note/Deed, Substitution of Trustees, Notice of Defaults, Trustee Sales. Receive a Certification as a CFLA-Mortgage Securitization Auditor "MSA", having met all requirements.
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CFLA Partners with Bloomberg for Ambassador MSA "Bloomberg" Training Certification - 2 Day Class - December 3rd & 4th, 2011 - Las Vegas, NV (Tier 2)
certifiedforensicloanauditors.com | Nov 10, 2011
CFLA, Inc., parent company of Certified Forensic Loan Auditors, LLC announced today in a statement from its Chief Executive Andrew Lehman that "We have partnered with Bloomberg L.P to co-offer a 30-day free trial membership of the Bloomberg Terminal which includes unlimited follow up training through the service provider, in conjunction with the launch of CFLA’s (tier 2) Mortgage Securitization Auditor Training Certification Class."
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Coming to Orlando ~ Certified Forensic Loan Auditors, LLC Presents Mortgage Securitization Auditor Training Certification "MSA" Nov 18-20
certifiedforensicloanauditors.com | Nov 10, 2011
Overview of securitization and the securitization conveyance chain, introduction to CFLA Securitization Reports, terminology, and borrower documents, SEC Search Techniques, SPV search, document review, MERS search, GSE search, Assignments, Separation of Note/Deed, Substitution of Trustees, Notice of Defaults, Trustee Sales, "The Note Is A Contract"/When original Notes are produced, Auditors as Testifying Experts/Review of court transcripts, HAMP Overview, and much more!
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Denial in the Mortgage Industrial Complex
economonitor.com | Nov 10, 2011
I just came back from the AmeriCatalyst conference in Austin, which was a packed two days focused on the state of the housing and securitization market. The panels were very informative, and it was also good to see some of the people I’ve read or heard about, in particular the leading analyst, Laurie Goodman of Amherst Securities.
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Florida Clerk, Delaware AG Sue MERS
nationalmortgagenews.com | Nov 9, 2011
County and state officials are turning up the heat on MERS, as recent lawsuits filed in Florida and Delaware challenge the validity and accuracy of the mortgage industry-controlled loan registry.
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Morgan Stanley Had 31 Days Of Trading Losses In 3Q - Filing
online.wsj.com | Nov 9, 2011
A proposal floated by the Obama administration and Freddie Mac to induce private mortgage investors back into the single-family loan industry likely would need to offer double-digit yields to entice buyers, analysts say.
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Unguaranteed Fannie Bonds May Yield Double-Digits
marketwatch.com | Nov 8, 2011
A proposal floated by the Obama administration and Freddie Mac to induce private mortgage investors back into the single-family loan industry likely would need to offer double-digit yields to entice buyers, analysts say.
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Dynex Capital (DX) Shares Upgraded to a “Buy” Rating by Cantor Fitzgerald Analysts
localizedusa.com | Nov 8, 2011
Dynex Capital (NYSE: DX) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday. Separately, analysts at Zacks Investment Research downgraded shares of Dynex Capital from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research note to investors on Tuesday, October 25th.
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Citi Wins Over Abu Dhabi in Arbitration Case on $7.5B Investment
huffingtonpost.com | Nov 7, 2011
Citigroup, the third-biggest bank in the United States, has won its case against the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA).
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Kamala Harris, California Attorney General, To Fannie And Freddie Head: 'Step Aside' Over Mortgage Crisis
huffingtonpost.com | Nov 7, 2011
California Attorney General Kamala Harris has called on the head of the agency that houses Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to "step aside" if he continues to refuse to reduce mortgage loans for underwater homeowners.
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GOP Scheme For "Mortgage Finance Reform" Insulates Fraudsters From Accountability
opednews.com | Nov 4, 2011
Rep. Scott Garrett of New Jersey seeks to gut many of the investor protections of the Securities Act of 1933, at least as they apply to mortgage-backed securities. Wait, you didn't notice that little detail last week, when he rolled out his Private Mortgage Market Investment Act for The Wall Street Journal , American Banker , Reuters , and CNBC ? Well, Garrett's contempt for transparency shows up in his press release on "mortgage finance reform." If you look at his actual proposal, you see a craven maneuver to remove transparency from the marketplace and to short-circuit the rule of law, so as to insulate Wall Street fraudsters from accountability.
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The Emperor Has No Clothes
huffingtonpost.com | Nov 4, 2011
Much of the recent media coverage and Internet chatter about financial industry reform has focused on the Occupy Wall Street movement. If we ever end up with the kind of reforms needed, that movement would certainly deserve some of the credit.
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Battle lines drawn on aid for troubled mortgages
northjersey.com | Nov 3, 2011
Sen. Bob Menendez and Rep. Scott Garrett are both from North Jersey and both are chairmen of subcommittees that regulate housing finance. The similarities end there, however, and their competing approaches in recent days to the slumping mortgage market provided yet another example.
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Homeownership Near 13-Year Low as Mortgage Rules Crimp Sales
housingwire.com | Nov 3, 2011
The U.S. homeownership rate in the third quarter was at the second-lowest level in 13 years as borrowers were evicted after foreclosures and the tightest mortgage standards in more than a decade thwarted new buyers.
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Dallas County DA amends MERS suit into class action
housingwire.com | Nov 2, 2011
Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins said his county is transforming its complaint against Merscorp and its Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, into a class-action lawsuit so neighboring Texas counties can sign on as plaintiffs.
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Mayor Bloomberg Rezones the Mortgage Crisis
forbes.com | Nov 2, 2011
As the honcho of New York, Bloomberg certainly has some vested interest in batting populist rage away from Wall Street toward Congress. But on the facts here, he’s dead wrong. Barry Riholtz dubs him an “empty-headed ideologue” for these words. Mike Konczal walks us through the research that flies in Bloomberg’s face.
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Fraud-o-rama USA: And the guy who got shot down trying to stop it
msnbc.msn.com | Nov 1, 2011

Elliott Spitzer was taken out of office for being effective in fighting the Big Bank Fraud Machine. Spitzer not only fought garden variety securities fraud, he also tried to stop the Federal government from tearing down the laws regulating mortgage lending, the pre-cursor to the Sub Prime disaster.
Watch the video.

Must SEE! AG in Delaware, Biden, Prosecuting MERS
msnbc.msn.com | Nov 1, 2011

Watch the video.

Banks Dominate in Australia, and Why It Matters
canadianmortgagetrends.com | Nov 1, 2011
Australia’s conservative mortgage market is in many ways similar to Canada’s. For that reason, the Canadian mortgage industry often looks to Australia to spot mortgage trends that haven’t yet arrived here.
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Bank of America doubles foreclosure filings in South Florida
bizjournals.com | Nov 1, 2011
Court records show that BofA initiated 280 foreclosures in South Florida’s three counties in August. That's more than double the bank's foreclosure filings of 118 in July and 135 in June.
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Rep. Garrett Submits Proposal to Revamp the GSEs
nationalmortgageprofessional.com | Oct 31, 2011
Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ), Chairman of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government-Sponsored Enterprises, has unveiled a proposal to reform the secondary mortgage market to ensure robust private investment in the U.S. mortgage market without a government guarantee.
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Delaware Attorney General Sues Mortgage Electronic Measuring System, Calls for Halt to Foreclosures
truth-out.org | Oct 30, 2011
The mortgage securitization industry has just had a new major front open on its battle with those who are less than happy with the way it has run roughshod over the law.
Read More.

Mass. court ruling has potential to void thousands of foreclosures
bloomberg.com | Oct 27, 2011
U.S. Bancorp and Wells Fargo & Co., in a ruling that drove down bank stocks, lost a foreclosure case before Massachusetts’s highest court that will guide lower courts in that state and may influence others in bank disputes involving state real-estate law.
Read More.

Which Bank is the Worst?
powerwall.msnbc.msn.com | Oct 27, 2011
If the Occupy Wall Street protesters want to target a single big bank, which should they choose? The decision wouldn't be easy, given the bad behavior of the country's biggest brand-name banks. We look at the country's four largest—Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo—and throw in Goldman Sachs, a natural target of any protest. Here's a taste of the deadliest sins committed by the banks, followed by a full account of all the gory details at each bank. Warning: It isn't pretty.
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Florida Attorneys Deconstruct Black Magic of Securitized Trusts and Foreclosure Crisis
prnewswire.com | Oct 26, 2011
Foreclosure Defense Attorneys Roy Oppenheim and Jacquelyn K. Trask-Rahn shed light on the ramifications of Wall Street greed during the housing boom and how the improper securitization of "mortgage-backed" securities that were never mortgage-backed built a precarious house of cards that came tumbling down on the whole nation.
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Wall Street Throws A Party But No Customers Show Up
forbes.com | Oct 26, 2011
Imagine throwing a party for your best customers and none of them show up. What would you think about your future?
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Occupy the Mortgage Lenders
reuters.com | Oct 25, 2011
Participants in the Occupy Wall Street movement are right to argue that the big banks have never properly been investigated for the mortgage origination, aggregation, and securitization behavior that was central to the financial crisis – and to the loss of more than eight million jobs. But, thanks to the efforts of New York’s attorney general, Eric Schneiderman, and others, serious discussion has started in the United States about an out-of court mortgage settlement between state attorney generals and prominent financial-sector firms.
Read More.

BofA Said to Get Subpoena From California's Attorney General
news.businessweek.com | Oct 25, 2011
Bank of America Corp. was given a subpoena by California's attorney general for information related to the packaging and sale of mortgage-backed securities, a person familiar with the matter said.
Read More.

Banks face deadline on tougher mortgage standards
marketwatch.com | Oct 19, 2011
Big banks struggling with stalled mortgage modifications face a new hurdle — tighter standards due to take effect in just over two months from housing giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Read More.

Housing’s Future Hinges on Planning
cutimes.com | Oct 19, 2011
The reform of the secondary mortgage market in the U.S. is like a very slow moving train. As of now, it appears that neither political party will take up the issue until after the 2012 elections, which are still more than a year away. But even a very slow moving train eventually gets where it’s going. Before that happens, I believe credit unions need to be organized to meet it.
Read More.

California Investigation Into Mortgage Abuses Widens
totalmortgage.com | Oct 21, 2011
It appears that California Attorney General Kamala Harris is following through on promises to conduct her own independent investigation into mortgage abuses. The attorney general’s office has reportedly subpoenaed Bank of America in connection with the investigation. Bank of America purchased failing lender Countrywide Financial in 2008. Countrywide was particularly active in originating subprime loans in California.
Read More.

BofA’s Mortgage-Bond Accord Kept in Federal Court for Review
businessweek.com | Oct 21, 2011
Bank of America Corp.’s proposed $8.5 billion settlement with mortgage-bond investors must be considered in federal court and not in New York state court where it was first filed, a U.S. judge said.
Read More.

Clayton forms securitization consultancy groups
housingwire.com | Oct 20, 2011
Clayton Holdings formed a new securitization group this week to help issuers, investors and other parties prepare for the, as yet nonexistent, return of the non-agency residential mortgage-backed securities market.
Read More.

As Rival REITs Weigh Public Funding, Shellpoint Stays Private
foxbusiness.com | Oct 20, 2011
Money managers who see a role for themselves in the evolution of U.S. mortgage finance are hopeful they will be able to tap equity markets for capital, but at least one firm is happy it has shunned that route.
Read More.

Banks face deadline on tougher mortgage standards
marketwatch.com | Oct 19, 2011
Big banks struggling with stalled mortgage modifications face a new hurdle — tighter standards due to take effect in just over two months from housing giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Read More.

Housing’s Future Hinges on Planning
cutimes.com | Oct 19, 2011
The reform of the secondary mortgage market in the U.S. is like a very slow moving train. As of now, it appears that neither political party will take up the issue until after the 2012 elections, which are still more than a year away. But even a very slow moving train eventually gets where it’s going. Before that happens, I believe credit unions need to be organized to meet it.
Read More.

Wall Street's New Nightmare: The Next Wave Of Mortgage-Backed Securities Claims
forbes.com | Oct 18, 2011
Her $8.5 billion Bank of America settlement over bad mortgage deals was just the beginning. Now, backed by bond giants Pimco and BlackRock, Texas lawyer Kathy Patrick is gearing up for a new legal assault on the financial industry.
Read More.

Vanguard's Behal Warns Of Obsolescence For Asset-Backed Bonds
online.wsj.com | Oct 18, 2011
Investors avoiding asset-backed securities may be pushing those bonds into a self-fulfilling prophecy of obsolescence, an ominous outlook for a market that has been key for consumer lending for decades, a top mutual-fund manager and other bond experts said Monday.
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A Man’s Home is His Castle
koreatimes.co.kr | Oct 17, 2011
The above title is probably a sexist remark in today’s society, given that most residential property is also held in the wife’s name. Whether married or single, residential real estate is the largest investment most individuals will ever make. As a result, residential real estate is the largest asset class in the world, much larger than stocks, bonds and commodities, including gold and silver.
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Fannie and Freddie Security-Slicing Proposal Floated
news.firedoglake.com | Oct 17, 2011
The Administration knows that housing remains a problem for the economy. And so they’ve proposed a lot of things to do something about that. None of them have worked, of course. But they’re throwing a lot of things up against the wall. The latest is a way to try and get the securitization market rolling again, which seems like a pretty terrible idea.
Read More.

Property foreclosures jump in SW Florida
miamiherald.com | Oct 14, 2011
Property foreclosures jumped 27 percent in southwest Florida recently and experts say the rise could be from a surge in filings from Bank of America.
Read More.

1 In 336 Minnesota Houses in Default
minnesota.cbslocal.com | Oct 14, 2011
The number of housing foreclosures in Minnesota during the third quarter is down nearly 27 percent compared to the same time last year.
Read More.

The 10 States Getting Crushed By Foreclosure
businessinsider.com | Oct 13, 2011
September's foreclosure filings fell 6% from August, but don't take that as a sign that the market's picked up, reports RealtyTrac.
Read More.

U.S. Foreclosure Activity Edges Higher
time.com | Oct 13, 2011
More U.S. homes are entering the foreclosure process, but they're taking ever longer to get sold or repossessed by lenders.
Read More.

Bloomberg: AGs Near Foreclosure Deal
mortgageorb.com | Oct 12, 2011
Top officials involved with multistate foreclosure settlement talks say a deal is close and that the settlement will not protect servicers from local and state governments' claims regarding MERS and mortgage securitization practices.
Read More.

Freddie Mac Eyeing Risk-Sharing in Home-Loan Bonds, CEO Says
businessweek.com | Oct 12, 2011
Freddie Mac may start using a type of securitization that it issues in its apartment-lending operations to off-load some of the credit risk on home loans, Chief Executive Officer Charles E. Haldeman said.
Read More.

Bond insurers v. banks: MBS loss causation teed up for ruling
newsandinsight.thomsonreuters.com | Oct 11, 2011
Last week a rumor made the rounds of hedge funds that trade in Bank of America and MBIA shares: The bank had reputedly agreed to settle the bond insurer's mortgage-backed securities fraud and put-back claims for $5 billion. The rumor turned out to be false, or at least premature, since no settlement is in the offing at the moment. But the size of the rumored deal gives you a sense of the magnitude of the litigation between the banks that packaged and sold mortgage-backed securities and the bond insurers that wrote policies protecting MBS investors. We are talking about billions of dollars-perhaps tens of billions-at stake in suits by MBIA, Syncora, Ambac, and Financial Guaranty against Countrywide, Credit Suisse, GMAC, Morgan Stanley, and other MBS defendants.
Read More.

Banks May Face Fraud, Municipal Claims After Foreclosure Accord
businessweek.com | Oct 11, 2011
U.S. banks may still face state securities-fraud claims and municipal lawsuits over unpaid mortgage fees under a settlement that is “getting closer,” the official leading talks for state attorneys general said.
Read More.

Securitization: SEC’s ABS shorting ban will have no effect
euromoney.com | Oct 10, 2011
The SEC has approved a proposal that would prevent a lender from shorting an asset-backed securities product or from putting together a security with a third party if there was an intention to bet against the security. But the expectation is that even if the rules were introduced, it would have no effect on the severely reduced US ABS market.
Read More.

Regulators to unveil complaint procedure for foreclosure cases
latimes.com | Oct 10, 2011
Under the process spearheaded by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, borrowers who think they've been unjustly harmed by errors, misrepresentations or other deficiencies in the foreclosure process can have their cases reviewed.
Read More.

Reps and Warrants Prompt Call to Rehaul Securitization Contracts
housingwire.com | Oct 7, 2011
The language and structure of mortgage securitization contracts made the financial crisis more painful and confusing for all parties involved, Federal Reserve Board Governor Sarah Bloom Raskin suggested in a speech Tuesday.
Read More.

Attorneys General Settlement: The Next Big Bank Bailout?
rollingstone.com | Oct 7, 2011
Amidst all the bad news coming out of Wall Street and the economy, here’s something good: California has backed out of the talks for the long-awaited foreclosure settlement, now making it far from likely that the so-called “Attorneys General” deal will happen anytime soon.
Read More.

SWAT Teams in St. Louis Protecting Bank of America; Refusing Customer Withdrawals

youtube.com | Oct 6, 2011
From what we can gather, according to eye witness testimony, St. Louis PD has barricaded the Bank of America building and is refusing customer access to deposits.
Click here to view the YouTube video.

BofA May Face HUD Fraud Claims for Soured Countrywide Loans
businessweek.com | Oct 6, 2011
Bank of America Corp. should face fraud proceedings after its Countrywide unit submitted faulty data to back up claims for reimbursement on federally insured mortgages, according to an audit by a U.S. watchdog.
Read More.

Fannie Mae Knew About Allegations Of Improper Foreclosures In 2003: Government Report
huffingtonpost.com | Oct 5, 2011
Mortgage giant Fannie Mae knew about allegations of improper foreclosure practices by law firms in 2003 but did not act to stop them, a government watchdog says.
Read More.

Housing: The Fine Print in a Tale of Woe
opinion.latimes.com | Oct 5, 2011
The housing market remains deeply troubled, with more than 800,000 homes on their way to foreclosure or in the process of being auctioned, according to RealtyTrac and Moody's Analytics. That's part of the reason the economy isn't growing fast enough to put many of the unemployed back to work.
Read More.

Fed's Raskin Asks Lawyers to Fix Mortgage Contract
marketwatch.com | Oct 4, 2011
A top Federal Reserve official on Tuesday called on lawyers to improve and standardize mortgage securitization contracts so that investors have more common expectations for resolving issues around the misrepresentation of the quality of mortgage securities.
Read More.

First National Financial Q3 Results to Include C$18 Mln. Loss on Hedging
rttnews.com | Oct 4, 2011
First National Financial Corp. Monday said its results for the third quarter would include losses of about C$18 million due to realized and unrealized losses on financial instruments.
Read More.

Why Let Banks Off the Hook for Mortgage Wrongdoing?
policyshop.net | Oct 3, 2011
If anyone is looking for a clear example of how economic fears have the power to scare us out of a commitment to justice, look no further than the Obama administration's continued support for a quick settlement in the case against major U.S. banks accused of illegally foreclosing on people's mortgages.
Read More.

Sealink sues JPMorgan, BofA over billions of RMBS
housingwire.com | Oct 3, 2011
Sealink Funding Limited filed multibillion-dollar lawsuits against Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, claiming the firms sold residential mortgage-backed securities that contained poorly underwritten mortgages.
Read More.

Bank of America, JPMorgan Units Sued in Mortgage-Backed Securities Cases
bloomberg.com | Sept 30, 2011
Bank of America Corp. (BAC)’s Countrywide unit was sued by Sealink Funding Ltd. in New York over $1.6 billion of residential mortgage-backed securities the fund purchased between 2005 and 2007.
Read More.

Bank of New York: We have no fiduciary duty to MBS investors
newsandinsight.thomsonreuters.com | Sept 30, 2011
When New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman sued Bank of New York Mellon in August, the AG asserted that the Countrywide mortgage-backed securitization trustee had breached its duty to MBS investors. "As trustee, BNYM owed and owes a fiduciary duty of undivided loyalty," said the AG's suit, which was filed as a counterclaim in BNY Mellon's case seeking approval of the proposed $8.5 billion Bank of America settlement with MBS investors. "[BNYM] breached that duty to [investors'] detriment and disadvantage, by failing to notify them of issues regarding the quality of loans underlying their securities."
Read More.

Mortgage litigation should get O.J.-sized media coverage
housingwire.com | Sept 26, 2011
The American judicial system is about to get a test more worthy of media coverage than the O.J. Simpson trial. It's a shame the media doesn't cover commercial litigation the way it covers sensational criminal cases. Legal experts blame mortgage legacy issues at major banks and RMBS litigation for much of the uncertainty plaguing financial markets and the economy.
Read More.

Housing Slump Hits New Mortgage Loans
online.wsj.com | Sept 26, 2011
Mortgage lending declined last year amid weak demand and tight credit standards, with particularly sharp credit contractions in neighborhoods with many foreclosures, according to the Federal Reserve.
Read More.

Fed. Judge in BofA MBS Case Homes in on Trustee's Rights, Duties
newsandinsight.thomsonreuters.com | Sept 23, 2011
Bank of New York Mellon, the Countrywide mortgage-backed securitization trustee, had another rough time of it at Wednesday's remand hearing before Manhattan federal judge William Pauley.
Read More.

BB&T You Can Bank On — Bank of America and Citigroup, However …
investorplace.com | Sept 23, 2011
The U.S. government has invested hundreds of billions of dollars — including the $750 billion Troubled Asset Recovery Program — to keep the world’s biggest banks (including some based in the U.S.) from failing. But if you’re going to put your own money into bank stock, skip the ones that got bailed out — like Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) and Citigroup (NYSE:C) — and consider a stake in a profitable regional bank like BB&T (NYSE:BBT).
Read More.

Monolines Accuse Credit Suisse of Misleading Financial Reports
blogs.reuters.com | Sept 22, 2011
The Association of Financial Guaranty Insurers doesn’t exactly mince words. In a newly-released letter to Credit Suisse CEO Brady Dougan, the executive director of the bond insurance group, Teresa Casey, accused the bank of “materially” understating its obligation to repurchase deficient underlying mortgage loans securitized in Credit Suisse MBS offerings. “We estimate that Credit Suisse’s obligations in respect of the securities insured by AFGI members aggregate billions of dollars,” the AFGI letter said. “We seek to understand the reasons why the full magnitude of the liability has not yet been recognized by Credit Suisse.”
Read More.

Home Sales Jump as Foreclosures Rise
kcra.com | Sept 22, 2011
The number of Americans who bought previously occupied homes rose in August. But the sales were driven by an increase in foreclosures, a sign that home prices could fall further next year and slow a housing recovery.
Read More.

Mortgage litigation should get O.J.-sized media coverage
housingwire.com | Sept 26, 2011
The American judicial system is about to get a test more worthy of media coverage than the O.J. Simpson trial. It's a shame the media doesn't cover commercial litigation the way it covers sensational criminal cases. Legal experts blame mortgage legacy issues at major banks and RMBS litigation for much of the uncertainty plaguing financial markets and the economy.
Read More.

Housing Slump Hits New Mortgage Loans
online.wsj.com | Sept 26, 2011
Mortgage lending declined last year amid weak demand and tight credit standards, with particularly sharp credit contractions in neighborhoods with many foreclosures, according to the Federal Reserve.
Read More.

Mortgage Debacle Costs Banks $66 Billion as Suits Sap Profit
businessweek.com | Sept 20, 2011
Faulty mortgages and foreclosure abuses have cost the nation’s five biggest home lenders at least $65.7 billion, according to a tally by Bloomberg News, and new claims may push the industrywide total to twice that amount.
Read More.

MBS Trustees (finally) Getting Feisty: Wells Sues Bear Unit
newsandinsight.thomsonreuters.com | Sept 20, 2011
If I were the kind of blogger to say I told you so -- which I definitely am -- I'd remind you that last week, when the prolific securitization trustee U.S. Bank filed a second suit demanding that a mortgage-backed securities issuer buy-back deficient underlying mortgage loans, I predicted that this was the beginning of a trend. Trustees are under serious pressure both from regulators fed up with their chronic reluctance to assert put-back demands against MBS sponsors and from MBS investors running out of time on securities claims. If their duties as trustees are anything short of a joke, they have to begin to take action.
Read More.

Monolines Accuse Credit Suisse of Misleading Financial Reports
blogs.reuters.com | Sept 22, 2011
The Association of Financial Guaranty Insurers doesn’t exactly mince words. In a newly-released letter to Credit Suisse CEO Brady Dougan, the executive director of the bond insurance group, Teresa Casey, accused the bank of “materially” understating its obligation to repurchase deficient underlying mortgage loans securitized in Credit Suisse MBS offerings. “We estimate that Credit Suisse’s obligations in respect of the securities insured by AFGI members aggregate billions of dollars,” the AFGI letter said. “We seek to understand the reasons why the full magnitude of the liability has not yet been recognized by Credit Suisse.”
Read More.

Home Sales Jump as Foreclosures Rise
kcra.com | Sept 22, 2011
The number of Americans who bought previously occupied homes rose in August. But the sales were driven by an increase in foreclosures, a sign that home prices could fall further next year and slow a housing recovery.
Read More.

Barclays Capital and FundCore Partner on New CMBS Loan Origination Program
nationalmortgageprofessional.com | Sept 21, 2011
Barclays Capital and FundCore Finance Group have announced a partnership that establishes a Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities (CMBS) loan origination and securitization program. As part of the program, Barclays Capital will provide funding to originate conduit loans while FundCore will source loan opportunities. The loans will be jointly underwritten by Barclays Capital and FundCore and are anticipated to be periodically securitized. The partnership will look to originate and securitize five-, seven- and 10-year fixed-rate loans secured by traditional commercial property types in major markets throughout the United States.
Read More.

Banks Beware: Time is Ripe for MBS Breach-of-Contract Suits
newsandinsight.thomsonreuters.com | Sept 21, 2011
Over the last couple of months Bank of America has taken a stock market and regulatory beating so brutal that it's reportedly considering the previously unthinkable option of putting Countrywide into Chapter 11. BofA's mortgage-backed securities exposure seems to have no upper limit; throughout BofA's long hot summer, it felt like every week investors surfaced with new claims that BofA, Countrywide, or Merrill Lynch violated state and federal securities laws in MBS offerings.
Read More.

Mortgage Debacle Costs Banks $66 Billion as Suits Sap Profit
businessweek.com | Sept 20, 2011
Faulty mortgages and foreclosure abuses have cost the nation’s five biggest home lenders at least $65.7 billion, according to a tally by Bloomberg News, and new claims may push the industrywide total to twice that amount.
Read More.

MBS Trustees (finally) Getting Feisty: Wells Sues Bear Unit
newsandinsight.thomsonreuters.com | Sept 20, 2011
If I were the kind of blogger to say I told you so -- which I definitely am -- I'd remind you that last week, when the prolific securitization trustee U.S. Bank filed a second suit demanding that a mortgage-backed securities issuer buy-back deficient underlying mortgage loans, I predicted that this was the beginning of a trend. Trustees are under serious pressure both from regulators fed up with their chronic reluctance to assert put-back demands against MBS sponsors and from MBS investors running out of time on securities claims. If their duties as trustees are anything short of a joke, they have to begin to take action.
Read More.

Spank of New York - Bank under fire from angry investor lawsuits
nypost.com | Sept 19, 2011
Back in 2009, Bank of New York Mellon chief Bob Kelly boasted that his bank had little exposure to the mortgage-market mess that toppled Lehman Brothers and nearly pushed other big financial firms off a cliff.
Read More.

First Horizon, Fitch Say Risk Manageable
memphisdailynews.com | Sept 19, 2011
Bryan Jordan, the president and CEO of First Tennessee Bank’s parent company, told his audience at an industry conference a few days ago in New York City that his company has been out of the mortgage business for three years now.
Read More.

Redwood Plans Second Mortgage-Bond Deal in Market of 2011
bloomberg.com | Sept 16, 2011
Redwood Trust Inc. (RWT), the only issuer of new home-loan securities without government backing since the market froze, plans to sell bonds tied to $375 million of so- called jumbo mortgages, in the second deal this year.
Read More.

Two Harbors Investment Corp. to Host Expert Panel Discussion at NYSE: "Policy and Practice: What's Next for the Mortgage Market?"
marketwatch.com | Sept 16, 2011
Two Harbors Investment Corp. today announced that in conjunction with ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, September 15, management will host a panel discussion with prominent mortgage and housing market experts titled "Policy and Practice: What's Next for the Mortgage Market?"
Read More.

AEI's Wallison Stands Against Government Guarantees for Securitization
housingwire.com | Sept 15, 2011
Peter Wallison of the American Enterprise Institute argued on Capitol Hill Tuesday that any type of government guarantee for mortgage securitizations will wipe out housing innovation, leaving taxpayers on the hook for billions of dollars.
Read More.

CREDIT MARKETS: Corporate Bonds Weaken On New Greece Worries
online.wsj.com | Sept 15, 2011
Credit markets weakened to start the week, moving lower on a volatile day for stocks due to renewed concerns about European sovereign debt, particularly the possibility that Greece could default.
Read More.

Foreclosure Deal Shouldn't Waive All Claims, Official Says
sfgate.com | Sept 14, 2011
Banks shouldn't be protected from liability for mortgage securitization as part of a national foreclosure settlement, said Minnesota's attorney general, joining other states voicing concern over the issue.
Read More.

Banks may Skirt GSE Uncertainty with Covered Bonds
housingwire.com | Sept 14, 2011
More banks based in the United States will establish covered bond programs to fund future mortgages on the perception of less risk and still lingering uncertainty over private and agency securitization markets, according to Moody's Investors Service.
Read More.

The Last Refuge of a Scoundrel
motherjones.com | Sept 13, 2011
The Basel III capital rules are designed to make the financial system safer by making banks build up risk-absorbent “core tier one” capital to at least 7 per cent of risk-weighted assets. The biggest, including JPMorgan, have to reach 9.5 per cent.
Read More.

Phoenix Number of Foreclosed Homes Grows
myfoxphoenix.com | Sept 13, 2011
The number of foreclosed single family homes in the valley has seen a jump for the first time this year.
Read More.

Breakingviews: No quick fix for banks' U.S. mortgage liability
newsandinsight.thomsonreuters.com | Sept 12, 2011
Subprime is the crisis that keeps on giving. Mortgages made to mostly American borrowers with questionable credit histories helped sink well-established financial firms like Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and Countrywide some three years ago. They're now threatening the viability of the survivors, like Merrill and Countrywide's new owner Bank of America, with their second wind in the courts.
Read More.

What the Wall Street Journal Got Wrong About FHFA Lawsuits
cnbc.com | Sept 9, 2011
My friends on The Wall Street Journal editorial board have several questions about the lawsuits the Federal Housing Finance Authority (FHFA) filed against banks that sold it mortgage-backed securities.
Read More.

RBS Expands Non-Mortgage Asset-Backed Securities Trading Desk with Appointment of Pat Peranek
webwire.com | Sept 8, 2011
RBS Securities Inc. (RBS) today announced that Pat Beranek has joined the firm as a Managing Director on its asset-backed securities (ABS) trading desk where he will be responsible for trading non-mortgage ABS with Alan Johannsen. Mr. Beranek will report to Adam Siegel, Co-Head of U.S. ABS, MBS and CMBS Trading, and will be based in Stamford, CT.
Read More.

Vexed by Securitization Suit, Banks Pull Out of Mortgage Fraud Settlement Meeting
swampland.time.com | Sept 8, 2011
The five biggest mortgage servicers have cancelled a planned negotiating session with representatives of the 50 State Attorneys General in apparent protest over a federal regulator filing suit against them, a source familiar with the matter tells TIME.
Read More.

FHFA Lawsuits: Price Tag Could Reach as High as $60 Billion
news.firedoglake.com | Sept 7, 2011
It’s been very hard to determine how much the FHFA is seeking in their lawsuit against leading banks in the mortgage bond scandal. We knew the total value of the mortgage backed securities in the suit – around $250 billion – but not precisely the amounts FHFA would ask for. Public radio’s Marketplace takes a look, and comes up with an eye-popping figure. They dug up a research note by the form Keefe Bruyette & Woods.
Read More.

The trend continues: U.S. Bank files another suit as MBS trustee
newsandinsight.thomsonreuters.com | Sept 7, 2011
U.S. Bank has struck again. Less than a week ago, the bank, acting as securitization trustee, sued Bank of America to demand the repurchase of deficient loans underlying Greenwich Capital MBS offerings. And now U.S. Bank has sued WMC Mortgage and Equifirst Corporation in its role as trustee for a $550 million UBS offering. Here's the 23-page Minnesota federal court complaint, filed by the recently ubiquitous Kasowitz Benson Torres & Friedman.
Read More.

Banks Said to Balk at 'Robo-Signing' Offer
upi.com | Sept 7, 2011
U.S. banks are balking at an offer by state officials to limit their blame for alleged improper mortgage practices in return for a multibillion-dollar payment.
Read More.

Legal Battle Over Mortgage Sales
nuwireinvestor.com | Sept 7, 2011
The U.S. is suing 17 banks, including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Barclays, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, alleging that securities laws were violated in the sale of mortgage-backed securities to federal agencies such as Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. The government is seeking a full buyback of the securities known as GSE Certificates in the amount of $196.2 billion. Observers believe that the litigation will further interfere with the administration’s plans to facilitate mortgage settlements between lenders, servicers and states that have lost millions in the securitization process. For more on this continue reading the following article from The Street.
Read More.

17 Banks Sued By Federal Housing Finance Agency
ycharts.com | Sept 6, 2011
The FHFA is suing 17 firms to recover nearly $200 billion spent on mortgage securities sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The suits filed on Friday, allege violations of federal securities laws and common law in the sale of residential private-label mortgage-backed securities (PLS) to the enterprises. The FHFA says the firms mislead Fannie and Freddie in regards to the quality of the mortgages in the securitizations.
Read More.

Government Going After Banks for Shoddy Mortgage Securities
theatlantic.com | Sept 6, 2011
The New York Times reports that our government is going to file suit against a bunch of major banks, alleging fraud in the mortgage securitization process. Apparently, the statute of limitations expires in a few days, so the Federal Housing Finance Agency is expected to slip the suit in just under the wire.
Read More.

U.S. is Set to Sue a Dozen Big Banks Over Mortgages
starnewsonline.com | Sept 2, 2011
The federal agency that oversees the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is set to file suits against more than a dozen big banks, accusing them of misrepresenting the quality of mortgage securities they assembled and sold at the height of the housing bubble, and seeking billions of dollars in compensation.
Read More.

Bank of America Doubles Foreclosure Filings in South Florida
bizjournals.com | Sept 2, 2011
Bank of America has ramped up the volume of foreclosure filings in South Florida, according to Business Journal research.
Read More.

Starwood Completes $154.4M Mortgage Securitization
businessweek.com | Sept 1, 2011
Real estate investment trust Starwood Property Trust Inc. on Tuesday said it completed a securitization of four first mortgage loans totaling $154.4 million.
Read More.

Mortgage-Bond Deal Challenged
articles.boston.com | Sept 1, 2011
Bank of America Corp. has been sued by homeowners seeking to block the bank’s proposed $8.5 billion mortgage-bond settlement with investors.
Read More.

Housing Market Fix: Speed Up Foreclosures?
foxreno.com | Aug 31, 2011
If the Obama administration really wants to save the housing market, it should speed up the foreclosure process -- not prolong the inevitable, experts say.
Read More.

No Floor Yet for Plunging Housing Market
investmentnews.com | Aug 31, 2011
Residential real estate prices in the U.S. decreased in the year ended in June at a slower pace than in the prior month, a sign the market may be stabilizing -- if only slightly.
Read More.

Are the State AG Mortgage Settlement Talks Falling Apart?
bankinvestmentconsultant.com | Aug 30, 2011
A rare public rebuke of a rogue attorney general by his colleagues has highlighted the dysfunction among the state AGs and raised doubts about their ability to strike a settlement deal with the largest mortgage servicers.
Read More.

A Look at Housingwire's Stories
housingwire.com | Aug 30, 2011
There's been talk of a new federal program to help boost the number of mortgage refinancings and some analysts weighed in.
Read More.

Its lawyers have helped stabilize Freddie Mac since the onset of the mortgage crisis, but can they hold on?
law.com | Aug 29, 2011
The atmosphere in the legal department at Freddie Mac is as bipolar as a double-A battery. On the negative end are federal probes, allegations of fraud, revolving-door leadership, and Republicans in Congress who are threatening to kill the secondary mortgage giant. Some in-house lawyers are even afraid to tell new acquaintances where they work. Deputy general counsel Ken Peters remembers vacationing with his wife in Ireland in 2008 and meeting another couple from Virginia. When Peters mentioned his employer, the woman shot back, "Well, thank you for the recession."
Read More.

BofA $8.5 bln Settlement May go to Federal Court
reuters.com | Aug 29, 2011
Investors objecting to Bank of America Corp's (BAC.N) $8.5 billion settlement of claims over losses on mortgage-backed securities are seeking to send their dispute to federal court, potentially delaying a resolution of one of the beleaguered bank's largest legal liabilities.
Read More.

More Americans at Foreclosure Risk in Second Quarter
ktvn.com | Aug 23, 2011
The number of Americans at risk of losing their homes is up. The Mortgage Bankers Association says 8.44% of homeowners missed at least one mortgage payment in the April-June quarter.
Read More.

Homeowner says Bank of America Foreclosure Notice Doesn't Add Up
nj.com | Aug 23, 2011
As a real estate agent, Mark Conca has watched homeowners struggle to make their mortgage payments. He’s seen a lot of short sales and foreclosures in recent years, and he’s even assisted homeowners looking for mortgage modifications.
Read More.

Foreclosures Made Up 31 Pct. Of Home Sales in 2Q
nytimes.com | Aug 25, 2011
Foreclosures made up roughly one-third of all home sales this spring. While that's a smaller share of sales from the previous quarter, it's six times the percentage of foreclosures in a healthy housing market.
Read More.

More Housing Trouble as Banks Seek to Sell Foreclosed Inventory
247wallst.com | Aug 25, 2011
Any home sale is a good one in the current market, but banks’ sales of foreclosed properties bring down prices. These sales are still a major part of the market. According to RealtyTrac, “sales of homes that were in some stage of foreclosure or bank owned accounted for 31 percent of all U.S. residential sales in the second quarter of 2011, down from nearly 36 percent of all sales in the first quarter but up from 24 percent of all sales in the second quarter of 2010.” The year-over-year trend is concerning. The first half of last year was a time when the economy was in deep trouble — as though that is not so now.
Read More.

States' Foreclosure Talks With Big Mortgage Servicers Stall
latimes.com | Aug 23, 2011
An effort by state attorneys general to take big mortgage servicers to task over faulty foreclosure practices has stalled as financial institutions demand broad legal immunity from other mortgage-related probes.
Read More.

Why the Bank-Settlement Talks are Likely to Drag on Indefinitely
blogs.reuters.com | Aug 23, 2011
Today brings dueling stories in the NYT and the WSJ on the status of the bank foreclosure-settlement talks. At issue is the question of whether the banks should be given immunity with respect to lawsuits surrounding their securitization shenanigans.
Read More.

More Americans at Foreclosure Risk in Second Quarter
ktvn.com | Aug 23, 2011
The number of Americans at risk of losing their homes is up. The Mortgage Bankers Association says 8.44% of homeowners missed at least one mortgage payment in the April-June quarter.
Read More.

Homeowner says Bank of America Foreclosure Notice Doesn't Add Up
nj.com | Aug 23, 2011
As a real estate agent, Mark Conca has watched homeowners struggle to make their mortgage payments. He’s seen a lot of short sales and foreclosures in recent years, and he’s even assisted homeowners looking for mortgage modifications.
Read More.

Number Of Troubled Mortgages On Rise Again
wxii12.com | Aug 22, 2011
In another hit to the beleaguered housing market, a report out Monday found that the number of delinquent mortgage borrowers -- those who have missed at least one payment -- rose during the second quarter.
Read More.

Climate Improves But Housing Still A Mess
kcci.com | Aug 22, 2011
An ominous cloud is hanging over the housing market: Millions of distressed properties could be put up for sale at any moment, potentially adding to the glut of unsold homes that are already on the market and depressing home prices even further.
Read More.

The Case Against Rating Agencies
counterpunch.org | Aug 19, 2011
In today’s looming confrontation the ratings agencies are playing the political role of “enforcer” as the gatekeepers to credit, to put pressure on Iceland, Greece and even the United States to pursue creditor-oriented policies that lead inevitably to financial crises. These crises in turn force debtor governments to sell off their assets under distress conditions. In pursuing this guard-dog service to the world’s bankers, the ratings agencies are escalating a political strategy they have long been refined over a generation in the corrupt arena of local U.S. politics.
Read More.

BoNY, Schneiderman Feud Over Mortgage-Bond Pact
nypost.com | Aug 18, 2011
Bank of New York Mellon asked a judge to reject a bid by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to intervene in a proposed $8.5 billion mortgage-bond settlement involving Bank of America.
Read More.

AIG to Sue BofA Over Mortgage-Backed Securities
programbusiness.com
American International Group (A.I.G.) is planning to sue Bank of America over hundreds of mortgage-backed securities, adding to the surge of investors seeking compensation for the troubled mortgages that led to the financial crisis.
Read More.

1-CIFG Sues Goldman, M&T Over Mortgage Bonds
reuters.com | Aug 17, 2011
Bond insurer CIFG Assurance North America [CADEGA.UL] has sued Goldman Sachs Group (GS.N) and M&T Bank Corp (MTB.N) in New York state court, claiming they fraudulently convinced CIFG to insure $275 million in mortgage-backed securities.
Read More.

Effort to Require Judge to Sign Off on Foreclosures in Michigan
wilx.com | Aug 17, 2011
Michigan is a state that allows foreclosure by advertisement, which means "banks can post citizens' names in the newspaper, and post a notice on their door and then go ahead with the foreclosure," according to Register of Deeds Curtis Hertel, Jr.
Read More.

Iowa AG Looks to Foreclosure Deal Within 2 Months
reuters.com | Aug 17, 2011
The Iowa attorney general, who is leading the 50-state probe into mortgage foreclosure problems, said on Monday that he hopes to have a settlement with the nation's biggest banks in the next two months.
Read More.

Nevada Joins States Balking at Bank Releases in Foreclosure Practices Deal
bloomberg.com | Aug 16, 2011
A possible settlement of a 50-state probe of foreclosure practices drew more state scrutiny as Nevada’s attorney general joined three other states in voicing concern about a deal that protects banks from continuing mortgage investigations.
Read More.

Quelle Surprise! New York Fed Director Shills For Bank of New York, Argues Against Rule of Law
economonitor.com | Aug 15, 2011
Given the Federal Reserve’s abysmal regulatory record in the runup to the crisis (even the uber bank friendly Office of the Comptroller of the Currency was more aggressive in going after subprime abuses, for instance), it should be no surprise that some of its directors are utterly lacking in propriety and common sense when it comes to defending the rights of banks to profit at the expense of customers and society at large.
Read More.

AIG to Sue BofA Over Mortgage-Backed Securities
programbusiness.com
American International Group (A.I.G.) is planning to sue Bank of America over hundreds of mortgage-backed securities, adding to the surge of investors seeking compensation for the troubled mortgages that led to the financial crisis.
Read More.

Allstate sues Goldman Sachs over $123 million of RMBS
housingwire.com
Allstate Insurance sued Goldman Sachs claiming the investment bank sold the company $123 million in toxic mortgage-backed securities, even though Goldman in its own terms considered the underlying collateral "junk" and "lemons."
Read More.

Bank of America Uses Attack Dog to Smear NY AG Schneiderman
firedoglake.com | Aug 15, 2011
I could barely suppress a laugh when reading about Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan begging Tim Geithner to settle the foreclosure fraud issue so they can get out from under their liability.
Read More.

Fannie Mae Pushing Foreclosures
pubcit.typepad.com | Aug 15, 2011
Fannie Mae has systematically refused mortgage servicer requests to postpone foreclosures for viable modifications, according to an investigation by The Detroit Free Press.
Read More.

Home Foreclosures Up 10 Percent in Austin Area
bizjournals.com | Aug 12, 2011
A total of 901 homes in the Austin area entered the foreclosure process in July. That’s about 10 percent more than the same period last year, according to data released Thursday from RealtyTrac Inc.
Read More.

Mortgage Payment Habits Improve in 2nd Quarter, but Improvements are Coming at a Slow Pace
canadianbusiness.com | Aug 12, 2011
The housing and job markets are still weak, but homeowners are slowly gaining strength.
Read More.

Foreclosures Fall For 10th Straight Month
click2houston.com | Aug 11, 2011
Foreclosure filings dropped once again in July, hitting their lowest level since November 2007, as processing delays and foreclosure prevention measures enabled a larger number of delinquent borrowers to remain in their homes.
Read More.

Reed Says Obama Administration Supports his Foreclosure Plan
thehill.com | Aug 11, 2011
The Obama administration is examining ways to revive the sluggish housing market by selling off certain repossessed properties, a move Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) says backs his plan to turn vacant, foreclosed homes into rental units.
Read More.

White House Seeks Ways to Stem Glut of Foreclosures
businessweek.com | Aug 10, 2011
The Obama administration, aiming to boost a housing market showing little sign of recovery from the 2008 credit crisis, is seeking ideas for renting, selling or disposing of foreclosed homes controlled by the government.
Read More.

Uncle Sam, Landlord, Looking for Help
blogs.abcnews.com | Aug 10, 2011
Uncle Sam is landlord for at least 90 thousand homes that owners lost to foreclosure, and tens of thousands more in the pipeline as families are evicted and properties are appraised.
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Freddie Mac Seriously Delinquent Loans and REO by Selected States
calculatedriskblog.com | Aug 9, 2011
Yesterday I posted a graph for REO inventory through Q2. (REO: Real Estate Owned by lenders). And on Sunday, I noted that REO is only a part of the problem. A bigger part of the problem is the large number of seriously delinquent and in-foreclosure loans.
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Wells Fargo Modifies 696,000 Mortgages
bizjournals.com | Aug 9, 2011
Wells Fargo & Co said it has 696,085 active or completed mortgage modifications in its loan-servicing portfolio since 2009.
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AIG Says It Will Sue BofA on $10 Billion in Mortgage Losses
sfgate.com | Aug 8, 2011
American International Group Inc., the bailed-out insurer, sued Bank of America Corp. over $10 billion in losses on mortgage-bond investments. The bank dropped 14 percent in New York trading.
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The Myth of the Middle Class Mortgage Deduction
reason.com | Aug 8, 2011
Conventional wisdom has it that without the ability to deduct mortgage interest from federal taxes, homeownership rates and housing prices would tumble. Worse, middle class families would be relegated a fate worse than foreclosure: renting. Two decades ago, these dire predictions may have had some relationship to reality. But in recent years, the middle class has seen its share of the mortgage interest deduction (MID) steadily erode, undermining the political case for retaining the subsidy.
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Bank of America Death Watch Update: Lawsuit in Washington, Elevated GSE Claims
firedoglake.com | Aug 8, 2011
It’s not just Eric Schneiderman. Bank of America faces a new lawsuit from the state of Washington, whose Attorney General, Rob McKenna, is a Republican.
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Short Sales Become Bank Foreclosure Shortcut
thestreet.com | Aug 5, 2011
Banks dealing with lengthy, complicated and frequently messy foreclosures are starting to see "short sales" as a quicker and cheaper way of getting bad loans off their books.
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LPS: Foreclosure Starts Increased in June
calculatedriskblog.com | Aug 5, 2011
The June Mortgage Monitor report released by Lender Processing Services, Inc. (NYSE: LPS) shows that, while still down 16.4 percent from the start of the year, foreclosure starts increased by more than 10 percent in June 2011. Delinquencies were also up, but incrementally, showing a 2.4 percent increase over May. As of the end of June, 4.1 million loans were either 90+ days delinquent or in foreclosure, representing a 12.8 percent increase since June 2010.
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In Seeking Waiver, BofA Admits They Violated Numerous Laws
firedoglake.com | Aug 4, 2011
The foreclosure fraud settlement has been predicted as coming in “a matter of weeks” for I think about 5 months now. I don’t see it coming at all, so it’s not entirely smart to jump on every rumor of a deal or a settlement. But Shahien Nasiripour’s story about a side deal with Bank of America has a lot of implications.
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Persistent Mortgage-Servicing Problems Continue to Evade Reform
nationaljournal.com | Aug 4, 2011
It seems like such a simple problem to solve: Why can’t homeowners on the brink of foreclosure get a straight answer from their lender about whether they can work out a plan to keep their house?
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Warriors Have to Fight to Keep Their Homes
theadvertiser.com | Aug 3, 2011
Charles "Chip" Pickett, who grew up in Morgan City and graduated from Comeaux High, found himself back in an Apache Longbow attack helicopter in Iraq two years ago at age 47.
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Bank of America Said to Seek Separate Foreclosure Deal
news.businessweek.com | Aug 3, 2011
Bank of America Corp. has held settlement negotiations with some states over home foreclosures separately from talks with a larger group of state and federal officials, two people familiar with the matter said.
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Foreclosures in New York City near 2,000. Are banks keeping up the buildings?
csmonitor.com | Aug 2, 2011
City officials could have acted to prevent the fire deaths of a boy and his parents in an illegally subdivided home that fell into disrepair in the foreclosure crisis, state Sen. Jeffrey Klein said Monday, while the mayor's office disputed the claim.
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Bank-owned Bronx Buildings 'Ticking time bombs'; Wells Fargo and Deutsche Ignore Building Codes
nydailynews.com | Aug 2, 2011
Bronx foreclosures have racked up hundreds of building code violations of the type that led to a deadly fire on Prospect Ave., according to new report released on Monday.
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Affluent Buyers Reviving Market for Miami Homes
nytimes.com | Aug 1, 2011
South Florida is the default capital of the country. Here in Miami-Dade County, one out of five households with mortgages is in foreclosure. Nearby Broward and Palm Beach counties are not far behind. Nearly 200,000 South Florida families are stuck in the mire of default.
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Low-Income Residents Need Legal Services, Too
miamiherald.com | Aug 1, 2011
Last year, Charles, an 80-year-old retired music teacher living on a fixed income, faced foreclosure of his home of more than 50 years. Victor, an Operation Enduring Freedom Army veteran who was injured in an Afghanistan combat zone, was denied Social Security disability benefits even though the Army found him to be 80 percent disabled as a result of his injuries. Pauline, a single mother of three, was denied unemployment compensation benefits after she lost her job of 10 years. Matthew, a disabled child with special needs, was failing in school.
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Family on Verge of Homelessness After Bank of America Denies Loan in 11th Hour
mlive.com | July 29, 2011
Instead of moving into her dream house this weekend, Jane VanOstenberg-Smith might be homeless after Bank of America denied her nearly $70,000 loan in the eleventh hour.
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Phoenix Second Worst in Foreclosures but Sees Drop
bizjournals.com | July 29, 2011
Phoenix ranks second worst for foreclosures through the midyear point but like many other markets the Valley is seeing a year-over-year decrease in foreclosures notices. Las Vegas still holds the dubious worst foreclosure market in the U.S. but is also seeing less notices compared to 2010.
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Bank to Return Woman's Home Sold Without Notice
kdvr.com | July 28, 2011
The Wheat Ridge woman who had the Bank of America sell her house out from under her could be getting her home back.
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Community, Government Leaders to Discuss Foreclosure Crisis
chicago.cbslocal.com | July 28, 2011
Community and government leaders and others are holding a summit meeting today on the foreclosure crisis in the Chicago area.
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BofA Donates Then Demolishes Houses to Cut Foreclosures
businessweek.com | July 27, 2011
Bank of America Corp., faced with a glut of foreclosed and abandoned houses it can’t sell, has a new tool to get rid of the most decrepit ones: a bulldozer.
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Foreclosures Lead to Long-Term Vacancies
bizjournals.com | July 27, 2011
The rise in foreclosures could lead to a long-term increase in vacancies, according to Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland researcher Stephan Whitaker.
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Bank Releases in Any Foreclosure Deal Opposed by Massachusetts Official
bloomberg.com | July 26, 2011
Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said the state won’t sign on to any settlement of a nationwide foreclosure probe that includes certain liability releases for banks, joining officials in at least two other states who have raised concerns over terms of a possible deal.
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Coakley Steps up Probe into Foreclosure Fraud
boston.com | July 26, 2011
Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley is beefing up her investigation into foreclosure fraud, targeting a powerful lender-created company in Virginia that claims to be the official owner of tens of millions of mortgages nationwide.
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TV Home Shows Flip Scripts
online.wsj.com | July 25, 2011
Where are the hundreds of thousands of foreclosed homes in the U.S. ending up? On reality television.
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Some Fear Mediation an Ineffective Tool to Fight Foreclosure
credit.com | July 24, 2011
While there are 25 foreclosure mediation programs in 14 states across the country, some now believe they may not be as helpful to troubled homeowners as they were planned to be, according to a report from MSNBC.
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Homeowner Demands Lender to Produce the Note
consumerwarningnetwork.com | July 21, 2011
The battles continue between homeowners in foreclosure and their lenders. A California homeowner litigates over the rightful owner of his home with his current lender Wells Fargo. He is not alone when it comes to homeowners asking their lenders to “Produce the Note“.
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U.S. Banks Push for Broad Liability Releases as Part of Mortgage Settlement
therealdeal.com | July 21, 2011
A push by U.S. banks to win broad liability releases has become the most contentious issue in talks to resolve a nationwide investigation of mortgage servicing and foreclosure practices, Bloomberg News reported.
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Regulators Balk at Demands for Foreclosure Reports
seattletimes.nwsource.com | July 21, 2011
Banking regulators refused to commit to releasing details of their investigations into illegal foreclosure practices by the nation's largest banks.
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Wells Fargo Fined $85M for Subprime Shenanigans
thestreet.com | July 20, 2011
The Federal Reserve fined Wells Fargo(WFC) $85 million in its first formal consumer-protection enforcement action to address the alleged "steering of borrowers into high-cost, sub-prime loans."
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New Effort to Prevent a Million Foreclosures Takes Shape
theatlantic.com | July 20, 2011
Last week, we learned that the Obama administration is considering other alternatives to stop foreclosures. Today, we have some color on what one of these efforts might look like. It would encourage servicers to reduce struggling borrowers' mortgage balance. Although banks have fought such efforts in the past, it seems that the program could benefit everyone involved. And the best part: it wouldn't take any taxpayer dollars.
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FTC Paying Nearly $108M to Countrywide Borrowers
nytimes.com | July 20, 2011
Hundreds of thousands of homeowners who took out mortgages with Countrywide Financial Corp. will soon receive their slice of a $108 million settlement over claims that the lender charged outsized fees to borrowers facing foreclosure.
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Western States, Hit Hard By Housing Crisis, Lag Behind During Recovery
huffingtonpost.com | July 20, 2011
Western states hit hardest by the housing crisis are feeling the greatest economic stress two years after the recession ended, according to The Associated Press's monthly analysis.
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Housing and Foreclosure Stats Paint Improving Picture
seekingalpha.com | July 20, 2011
We had a host of housing/credit data come out on Tuesday. They all pointed to the same thing. Housing is bouncing along a bottom, the consumer’s balance sheet continues to improve and the rate at which they are defaulting on loans continues to fall. All those metrics clash with the “double dip recession” or “housing won’t recover for a decade” crowd’s group think. Now, by no means am I calling for 4% GDP or a bull market in housing for the rest of the year. What I am saying is that the statistics we see coming out point to continued improvement, not deterioration.
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Life on MERS: Archive is at Center of Mortgage Mess
reuters.com | July 19, 2011
A little-known institution in Reston, Virginia, has done much to help loan servicers produce foreclosure documents of questionable legitimacy, according to multiple recent court rulings and deposition testimony.
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Special Report: Banks Continue Robo-Signing
wtaq.com | July 19, 2011
America's leading mortgage lenders vowed in March to end the dubious foreclosure practices that caused a bruising scandal last year.
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Builders Push ‘Green’ to Stand Out in Foreclosure-Filled Market
bloomberg.com | July 18, 2011
In the 20 years Ron Betenbough’s company has been building homes in west Texas, he’s always been willing to compete on price. Now, in a market crowded with cheap properties, he’s also touting environmentally friendly construction and energy-saving features.
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Fraudclosure Fail | D.C. Council Alters Foreclosure Law, Removes Clause Which Said That Any Violation of the Law Would Void a Foreclosure
zerohedge.com | July 18, 2011
The D.C. Council enacted emergency legislation Tuesday to amend a controversial clause in its foreclosure mediation law that threatened to stall the sale of foreclosed affected homes across the city.
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Foreclosures Plunge in First Half of 2011
wfmz.com | July 15, 2011
Foreclosure filings fell dramatically during the first half of the year as processing delays at the banks, which are strapped with excess inventory of repossessed homes, continued to skew the numbers -- and falsely raise hopes that the housing market is staging a recovery.
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Homeowners Facing Foreclosure May Qualify for Help
wboy.com | July 15, 2011
If you're in danger of losing your home because you're unemployed or under-employed as a result of the recession, there's a federal program that may offer some relief.
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Foreclosure Filings High in California
pasadenastarnews.com | July 14, 2011
California had the nation's highest number of foreclosure filings in the first half of 2011 but the numbers have fallen dramatically from last year, according to RealtyTrac.
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Questions Raised About Bank of America's Capital Cushion
nytimes.com | July 14, 2011
Bank of America could be relying on a thin capital cushion, says The Wall Street Watch's David Reilly.
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Biggest Stock of Foreclosed Homes: Right Here
nytimes.com | July 13, 2011
Although it never shared the notoriety of Miami, Los Angeles and Phoenix during America’s foreclosure crisis, the Chicago area now has the nation’s largest inventory of foreclosed homes because it is harder to unload troubled properties here than in most other metropolitan areas.
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R. Kelly Hasn't Made Payments on His Multimillion Dollar Mansion in Over a Year
nytimes.com | July 13, 2011
Does the name Robert Sylvester Kelly ring a bell? Unless you are well-versed in the musical industry, chances are that the name is unrecognizable. However, what about the name R. Kelly? Surely, this name resounds in your head as you instantly start singing the lyrics to one of his singles that resided at the top of the charts for weeks to months.
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Bank’s Deal Means More Will Lose Their Homes
nytimes.com | July 11, 2011
Tens of thousands of Bank of America’s most distressed borrowers could be evicted and lose their homes more quickly as a result of a proposed settlement between the bank, which is the country’s largest mortgage servicer, and investors in its troubled mortgage securities.
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As Government Nears Accord with Banks, Questions Swirl over Scope of Investigation
huffingtonpost.com | July 11, 2011
State and federal prosecutors are pressing to complete a proposed settlement with the nation's five largest home loan companies over alleged mortgage abuses, even though they've only initiated a limited investigation that hasn't examined the full extent of the alleged wrongdoing, according to interviews with more than two dozen officials and others familiar with the state and federal probes.
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DEMUCHA v WELLS FARGO | California Appeals Court Reverses & Remands "QUIET TITLE, FRAUD & MISREPRESENTATION, SLANDER OF CREDIT"
stopforeclosurefraud.com | July 11, 2011
This case presents a classic example of the longstanding rule that “in passing upon the question of the sufficiency or insufficiency of a complaint to state a cause of action, it is wholly beyond the scope of the inquiry to ascertain whether the facts stated are true or untrue” as “[t]hat is always the ultimate question to be determined by the evidence upon a trial of the questions of fact.” (Colm v. Francis (1916) 30 Cal.App. 742, 752.)
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Risk of Foreclosure Dips, but Remains Elevated
kval.com | July 11, 2011
Fewer Americans fell behind on their mortgage payments in the final three months of last year, but foreclosures are still rising.
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Some Homeowners Get Mortgage Relief
thenewstribune.com | July 8, 2011
The Obama administration is making it easier for out-of-work homeowners to stay in their homes, as it tries to revamp its troubled foreclosure-prevention program.
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The Foreclosure That Never Was
tribtoday.com | July 8, 2011
A Warren couple is finding themselves in possession of a damaged house they believe they were forced out of three years ago during a foreclosure action.
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Banks Said to be Near Foreclosure Settlement
bizjournals.com | July 7, 2011
Sources say Wells Fargo & Co and Bank of America Corp are among five banks nearing a deal to resolve state and federal claims over faulty foreclosures, with a settlement that could exceed $20 billion, Bloomberg reports.
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Backing Off the $60 Billion Mortgage
blogs.wsj.com | July 7, 2011
Yesterday’s panic inducing data point was a New York Post story that said banks could be shelling out $60 billion to settle state and federal claims over mortgage-servicing and foreclosure problems. That would be about three times larger than the expected size for such a the settlement.
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Borrowers Sue Over Apparent Loan Mod Mishaps
onlinesentinel.com | July 5, 2011
It seemed Maria Campusano's financial problems were behind her when the mortgage on her Victorian home in a Massachusetts mill town was chopped by hundreds of dollars a month.
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EHLP to Extend Mortgage Help to Consumers
credit.com | July 6, 2011
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recently launched a new foreclosure assistance initiative known as the Emergency Homeowners’ Loan Program, which will give more than $1 billion to consumers nationwide who fell behind on their mortgage payments due to job loss or unforeseen medical bills. Approved homeowners will receive a maximum of $50,000 in interest-free loans over two years to help them catch up on their home loan payments.
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3 Out of 5 Mortgages in Region Underwater
rgj.com | July 6, 2011
Six years after area home prices started their precipitous drop, nearly three in five homes with a mortgage in the Reno-Sparks market are either suffering from negative equity or are at risk of being underwater.
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Foreclosure Abuses Continue
dailykos.com | July 4, 2011
After investigations found that abusive practices were widespread in the mortgage industry, regulators clamped down on some of the worst practices. But Paul Kiel at ProPublica finds that serious problems continue.
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Foreclosure Overhaul Leading to HI Housing Glut
kitv.com | July 3, 2011
Hawaii's new foreclosure law has some of the nation's strongest protections for homeowners, but many in the industry are warning that the law may have gone too far.
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Banks Commence Wholesale, Unsolicited Mortgage-Debt Forgiveness
zerohedge.com | July 3, 2011
It was just a matter of time before wholesale debt-forgiveness became the primary source of wealth in the US. The time is now.
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