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发帖数: 901 | 1 ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- New York and California have agreed to sign the
proposed settlement between U.S. states and the nation's biggest mortgage
lenders over foreclosure abuses, according to a source close to the
negotiations.
Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citibank and Ally Financial
agreed to the settlement — for an estimated $37 billion as of Wednesday for
lowering homeowners' mortgage principal, refinancing, a reserve account,
and checks to homeowners. However, they were seeking releases from further
legal liability, which have been one subject of negotiations for the past
several days with state attorneys general who wanted to pursue
investigations.
The settlement grants immunity from civil lawsuits brought by the attorneys
general against the lenders over narrowly defined "robo-signing" cases.
The source, who was not authorized to disclose the agreement before an
announcement expected Thursday or Friday, said other holdout states —
Delaware, Massachusetts and Nevada — all have or are imminently expected to
also agree.
The source said the agreement will enable authorities to pursue all claims
over mortgage-backed securities that collapsed. It lets them use facts from
robo-signing claims in securities, insurance and tax fraud cases.
It also preserves the lawsuit filed last week by New York Attorney General
Eric Schneiderman that accused some banks of deceit and fraud in using an
electronic mortgage registry that allegedly put homeowners at a disadvantage
in foreclosures.
Schneiderman's office declined to comment Wednesday night. New York has some
118,000 "underwater" borrowers whose homes are worth less than their
mortgages and would expect to get $136 million as a guaranteed cash payment
from the settlement.
California, with more than 2 million underwater borrowers, would get $430
million. Florida would get $350 million and Texas $141 million.
Most states had already backed the nationwide settlement stemming from
abuses that occurred after the housing bubble burst. Many companies that
process foreclosures failed to verify documents. Some employees signed
papers they hadn't read or used fake signatures to speed foreclosures — an
action known as robo-signing.
The deal would be the biggest involving a single industry since a 1998
multistate tobacco deal. It would force the five largest mortgage lenders to
reduce loans for about 1 million households. The reduced loans would
benefit homeowners who are behind on their payments and owe more than their
homes are worth.
The deal includes $2.7 billion in guaranteed cash payments altogether, and
estimates of $1.5 billion for payments to victims of wrongful foreclosure, $
3 billion from a refinance program and $32.3 billion in homeowner benefits
from loan modifications. | s*********8
发帖数: 901 | 2 told ya. Officially print
Government officials announced a record $25 billion settlement with the five
biggest banks related to foreclosure abuses including "robo-signing" of
documents.
The deal is the largest multi-state settlement since the Tobacco Settlement
in 1998, the Department of Justice said. Among the money allocated will be $
1.5 billion distributed nationwide to about 750,000 borrowers who lost their
homes to foreclosure.
Attorney General Eric Holder said the deal by 49 state attorneys general,
who worked late into the hours of last night, does not preclude states from
pursuing their own suits against the banks.
Holder announced further terms of the deal would be on the website,
NationalMortgageSettlement.com, and residents of the states involved should
visit the sites of their respective attorneys general.
Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan said the
settlement holds banks accountable for abuses against homeowners which "
continued long after people got the keys to their new home."
"No more lost paperwork, no more excuses, no more rhetoric," Donovan said.
Donovan said the investigation comprised at least 15,000 hours of reviewing
thousands of files of Federal Housing Adminstration insured loans.
The Department of Justice held a press conference this morning to announce
an agreement. New York and California were among the last holdouts but they
both joined the settlement. |
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