Eye on Loan Modifications

Better Late Than Never? Gov’t Finally Penalizes

Major Banks for Mortgage Mod Failures

by Paul Kiel
ProPublica,

Photo by Dan Nguyen/ProPublica

The Obama administration’s mortgage modification program is more than two years old. From the beginning, it’s been apparent that the participating banks and mortgage servicers were breaking the program’s rules.

THE SECURITIZATION FAIL

About Those Notes…Evidence of Security

 by Adam Levitin

Since last October, shortly after the robosigning scandal broke, I’ve been talking until I turned blue in the face about robosigning being the tip of the iceberg with mortgage problems and that the real issue was chain of title. Robosigning appeared to be an almost unexpected deposition by-product; the real goal in the depositions that uncovered the robosigning was exposing the backdating of mortgage endorsement. And that they did–the notaries’ whose seals were on the documents didn’t have their commissions when the assignments supposedly took place. 

FORECLOSURE FRAUDS

Beware of Foreclosure Rescue Scams

The threat of losing your home can lead some homeowners to take desperate measures to find companies who claim to reduce your monthly mortgage payment or take other steps to save your home.

THE MORTGAGE CRISIS

Today’s (Needless) Hysteria: the S&P Panic

JAMES FALLOWS – James Fallows is a national correspondent for The Atlantic and has written for the magazine since the late 1970s. He has reported extensively from outside the United States, and once worked as President Carter’s chief speechwriter

I agree with Clive Crook’s puzzlement about the S&P downgrade “bombshell” today: 

“S&P adduces no new information that I can see. Competent ratings of opaque instruments such as, oh, mortgage-backed securities would be very useful to investors (not that ratings agencies troubled to provide competent ratings in that case, obviously). But why should anybody need that kind of help in judging the soundness of US government bonds? S&P knows nothing about them that you or I don’t know.”

ADMINISTRATION TRANSPARENCY

SEC Warns Former JPMorgan Exec It Plans to Sue Over

Magnetar Deal

by Marian Wang
ProPublica

The JP Morgan Chase headquarters in New York on March 17, 2008. (Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images)

The Securities and Exchange Commissionmay soon file suit over a mortgage securities deal involving JPMorgan Chase and a hedge fund called Magnetar, Bloomberg reported. Two individuals have been notified of potential charges. They include a former executive at JPMorgan, the bank that created and marketed the security, and a former executive at GSC Capital, the firm that managed the selection of assets.

EYE ON LOAN MODIFICATION

Lawsuit Reveals How a Middleman Is Blocking Mortgage

Modifications for Homeowners

by Paul Kiel
ProPublica

Pamela Jeter of Atlanta, Ga., is currently facing foreclosure. (Photo courtesy of Pamela Jeter)

Pamela Jeter of Atlanta, Ga., has been trying to get a mortgage modification for more than two years. She seems like an ideal candidate. She has shown she can stay current with a reduction in her monthly mortgage payments. Everybody would seem to win. Even the investors who ultimately own her loan think she should be able to get one. So, why is Jeter facing foreclosure?

THE TRADE

In Proposed Mortgage Fraud Settlement, a Gift to Big Banks

by Jesse Eisinger
ProPublica

Lurking in a proposed mortgage fraud settlement with the state attorneys general is a clause that could be worth billions for the big banks.