Independent Foreclosure Review: $124.30 payments of foreclosure funds to 650,000 borrowers to be mailed from Rust Consulting

August 8, 2016 Update: Payments to nearly 650,000 borrowers of servicers supervised by the Federal Reserve who cashed or deposited their initial checks to begin on August 8

At the direction of the Federal Reserve, on August 8 and 15, the paying agent, Rust Consulting, Inc. (Rust) will mail payments to nearly 650,000 eligible borrowers of Federal Reserve supervised servicers who cashed or deposited their initial checks from the Independent Foreclosure Review (IFR) Payment Agreement by the March 31, 2016 deadline. The redistribution of funds remaining from the IFR Payment Agreement that were attributable to Federal Reserve supervised servicers will provide a total of over $80 million to borrowers, consistent with the Federal Reserve’s intention to distribute the maximum amount of funds to borrowers potentially affected by deficient servicing and foreclosure practices.

Under the redistribution, every eligible loan will receive a payment of $124.30. Borrowers receiving a redistribution payment will have the opportunity to request a name on a payment to be changed, a payment to be split, or a payment to be reissued. All requests must be received by Rust no later than September 30, 2016. In early-November, there will be a one-time mailing of redistribution check reissuances to accommodate all reissue, payee change, and split check requests. All redistribution checks will expire on December 31, 2016.

Servicers covered include GMAC Mortgage, Goldman Sachs/Litton Loan Servicing, Morgan Stanley/Saxon Mortgage Services, and SunTrust. In addition, some borrowers whose loans were serviced by HSBC or JPMorgan Chase may be covered. HSBC and JPMorgan Chase borrowers should contact Rust at 1-888-952-9105 to determine whether their loan was serviced by the part of the servicing operations of those two companies that is supervised by the Federal Reserve.

Read on.

Nearly 650,000 borrowers to receive more money from Independent Foreclosure Review

The clock is now at zero for the borrowers eligible for payment under the Independent Foreclosure Review Payment Agreements who have not yet cashed or deposited their check, and their money is going to the borrowers who already cashed their checks.

As it said it would last year, the Federal Reserve Board announced Monday that any leftover money from the $3.9 billion set aside for borrowers as part of the Independent Foreclosure Review will go to borrowers who already received money because some borrowers took too long to cash their checks.

The Fed said last year that borrowers who had not cashed their check had until Dec. 31, 2015 to request a replacement check. Those borrowers then had until March 31, 2016 to cash their new checks.

Now that March 31 has come and gone, there’s still more than $80 million left, and the Fed is directing the paying agent, Rust Consulting, to redistribute the funds to borrowers who cashed their checks by the March 31 deadline.

According to the Fed, the Independent Foreclosure Review Payment Agreement, overseen by the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, provided $3.9 billion for borrowers of 13 servicers whose homes were in any stage of the foreclosure process in 2009 or 2010.

Read on.

OCC terminates Wells Fargo’s mortgage servicing restrictions

And $70 million is a drop in the bucket for Wells Fargo..

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on Wednesday finally lifted its mortgage servicing restrictions on Wells Fargo now that the bank is in compliance with the requirements of the Independent Foreclosure Review.

But Wells Fargo didn’t come out of this unscathed and must pay a $70 million civil money penalty for previous violations of the order, according to the OCC.

“We are pleased that the OCC has validated the effectiveness of the significant changes we have made to our mortgage servicing operations and confirmed our release from the Consent Order.  Our team worked very hard to complete the requirements of the original Consent Order and the amendments, and continues to provide the best possible service to our customers,” Tom Goyda, a spokesperson for Wells Fargo said.

While the OCC said it originally issued orders in April 2011 and amended the orders in February 2013, it amended the orders again in June 2015.

The OCC revised Wells Fargo’s restrictions, along with JPMorgan Chase’s and four other banks that also had restrictions placed on them due to their failure to comply with requirements of the Independent Foreclosure Review.

At the time, Wells Fargo and HSBC were dealt the hardest blow by the OCC and were prohibited from:

• Acquiring of mortgage servicing rights until the consent order is terminated
• New contracts to perform mortgage servicing prohibited until the consent order is terminated
• New offshoring of mortgage servicing activity until the consent order is terminated

Click this chart for a more in-depth outline of the restrictions placed on each bank.

Read on.

Feds reissue checks related to the Independent Foreclosure Review

For the Federal Government, maybe the third time will be the charm.

According to the statistics, 800,000 foreclosed homeowners are still missing out on $500 million in compensation.

Replacement checks are being mailed this week to borrowers eligible for payment under the Independent Foreclosure Review Payment Agreements and who have not yet cashed or deposited their check, the Federal Reserve Board and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency announced Wednesday.

The checks are being sent by the paying agent, Rust Consulting, to replace uncashed checks that have now expired.

Agreements reached in January 2013 between federal bank regulatory agencies and 13 mortgage servicers provided $3.6 billion in cash payments to borrowers whose homes were in any stage of the foreclosure process in 2009 or 2010.

The mortgages were serviced by one of the following 13 companies, their affiliates, or subsidiaries:  Aurora, Bank of America, Citibank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, MetLife Bank, Morgan Stanley, PNC, Sovereign, SunTrust, U.S. Bank, and Wells Fargo.

Read on.

Federal Reserve Faulted Over Foreclosure Accord in Watchdog’s Report

Not surprised by this. And I wouldn’t be surprised if Senator Warren ask for hearing with Yellen…

The Federal Reserve must take steps to improve handling of complex settlements like the one reached with mortgage servicers over improper foreclosures, an internal watchdog said in a report.

Lax preparation and management led to poor execution of 2013 accords with 13 companies including (BAC:US)Bank of America Corp. (BAC:US) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. that were meant to compensate borrowers who were harmed, according to the report released today by the Fed’s Office of Inspector General.

“The board was responsible for overseeing the corrective action at an individual-borrower level for more than 4 million borrowers on an interagency basis,” according to the report. “Nevertheless, the board engaged in limited planning activities for this unprecedented enforcement strategy.”

Read on.

FOIA Controversy re TERMINATION of Allonhill as a “Consultant” for the INDEPENDENT FORECLOSURE REVIEW || WILLIAMS & CONNOLLY, LLP v. OFFICE OF COMPTROLLER OF CURRENCY . . . Case DISMISSED

Williams & Connolly, LLP v. Office of Comptroller of Currency (D.D.C. 2014) Status: Precedential View original: From the court One of the consultants, Allonhill, LLC (“Allonhill”), was engaged as an independent consultant for Aurora Bank until its termination at the direction of the OCC due to a conflict presented by Allonhill’s previous work and the independence requirements of the OCC in connection with the IFR. See Ex. 1 (Walker Decl.) at Ex. D, p. 15. __________________ 5 Williams & Connolly is counsel for the terminated consultant, Allonhill. -5- . . . Accordingly, for the foregoing reasons, the Court grants the Comptroller’s motion for summary judgment and denies the plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment and also its request for a hearing in the matter. SO ORDERED this 30 day of April, 2014.11 REGGIE B. WALTON United States District Judge

Here is the court document. Click here. And more court documents from Stop Foreclosure fraud website. Click here.

GMAC Mortgage joins independent foreclosure review settlement

GMAC Mortgage joins independent foreclosure review settlement

Federal regulators added another mortgage servicing company to an amendment that will compensate eligible homeowners impacted by the foreclosure crisis.

The Federal Reserve Board released an amended enforcement action against GMAC Mortgage Friday, requiring $230 million in cash payments to mortgage borrowers.

The amendment is similar to those announced earlier this year between more than a dozen mortgage servicers, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve.

Like other institutions, GMAC Mortgage ($25.32 0.03%) was subject to an enforcements action for deficient practices in mortgage loan servicing and foreclosure processing back in 2011.

The bankruptcy court overseeing the proceedings involving GMAC Mortgage approved the company’s entry into the amended enforcement action. As a result of the amendment, the independent foreclosure reviews will conclude for the GMAC Mortgage borrowers.

Victims Of Mortgage Abuse Refuse To Cash Tiny Settlement Checks

Victims Of Mortgage Abuse Refuse To Cash Tiny Settlement Checks

A billion dollars in checks sent to foreclosed homeowners as part of a national settlement with big banks is going uncashed, another sign that the government’s much-criticized effort to redress mortgage abuses is coming up far short of its promised impact.

While the agency in charge of dispersing the funds has not specified how many individual checks make up that $1 billion total, the fact that recipients are not bothering to deposit the funds reinforces criticisms of the program. It distributed 4.2 million checks, which expire after 90 days. The vast majority of those checks were for just $300 each. Yet a review by the Independent Foreclosure Review (IFR) suggested that almost a quarter million Americans lost homes under false or illegal pretenses and that about 1.2 million borrowers had had to defend against wrongful foreclosure efforts. The IFR, part of the much-derided 2012 National Mortgage Settlement, has long been faulted for protecting the mortgage industry and for distributing checks for hundreds of dollars to homeowners who owed hundreds of thousands to abusive lenders. The uncashed checks account for a bit less than a third of the money allocated for the IFR program under the 2012 deal with financial firms.

Bernanke: Regulators will release some details on foreclosure reviews

Bernanke: Regulators will release some details on foreclosure reviews

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said prudential regulators who oversaw the $9.3 billion Independent Foreclosure Review settlement dealplan to release more data on what consultants found when studying foreclosures that servicers conducted back in 2009 and 2010.

Bernanke advised Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., during a Senate Banking Committee hearing Thursday, that regulators are currently working on a report to heighten transparency around the IFR.

Still, the Fed Chairman conceded that the data under review is related solely to those loans files that were reviewed – thousands of others never made it through the process.

ResCap to Pay $230M to End Foreclosure Reviews

ResCap to Pay $230M to End Foreclosure Reviews

Residential Capital has won court permission to set aside $230 million for payments to homeowners whom the company may have foreclosed on improperly.

The former subprime mortgage unit of Ally Financial has received approval to enter into an agreement with the Federal Reserve Board that would end regulatory review of its foreclosure practices, Judge Martin Glenn of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan ruled on Wednesday.