Service Members’ Compensation for Unlawful Foreclosures Under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act Rises to $311 Million

Department of Justice

Office of Public Affairs

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

The Justice Department announced today that an additional 1,461 service members and their co-borrowers are eligible to receive over $186 million for home foreclosures under the department’s settlements with five of the nation’s largest mortgage servicers.  Those settlements implement the protections of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA).  Together with other foreclosure-related compensation announced by the department in February, a total of 2,413 service members and their co-borrowers are eligible to receive over $311 million.  The five mortgage servicers are JP Morgan Chase Bank N.A. (JP Morgan Chase); Wells Fargo Bank N.A. and Wells Fargo & Co. (Wells Fargo); Citi Residential Lending Inc., Citibank, NA and CitiMortgage Inc. (Citi); GMAC Mortgage LLC, Ally Financial Inc. and Residential Capital LLC (GMAC Mortgage); and Bank of America N.A., Countrywide Home Loans Inc., Countrywide Financial Corp., Countrywide Home Loans Servicing L.P. and BAC Home Loans Servicing L.P. (Bank of America).

The compensation results from the SCRA portion of the 2012 settlement known as the National Mortgage Settlement (NMS) and an earlier settlement with Bank of America, for foreclosures that took place between Jan. 1, 2006, and Apr. 4, 2012, where the servicer obtained a foreclosure without a judicial proceeding or where the servicer obtained a default foreclosure judgment without filing a proper affidavit with the court stating that the service member was in military service.

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[Snapshot] Here’s the latest progress on Chase’s RMBS settlement

Chase credited with $3.6B in consumer relief

Here is a snapshot of the update consumer relief

Click to enlarge

(Source: Joseph Smith)

Housingwire:

National Mortgage Settlement Monitor Joseph Smith credited Chase with $3,555,280,673 in consumer relief to 158,107 borrowers through March 31, 2015.

This is Smith’s sixth report on JPMorgan Chase’s (JPM) progress on its settlement with the federal government and five states concerning claims that Chase,Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual packaged and sold bad residential mortgage-backed securities to investors before the financial crisis.

“We continue to help thousands of families become homeowners and assist those who may be struggling.  We have helped nearly 162,000 families through more than $19 billion in total mortgage relief,” JPMorgan said in a statement.

Chase also self-reported consumer relief credit for the second quarter of 2015. As of June 30, 2015, Chase claimed an additional $126,253,926 in consumer relief.

Ocwen finally out of National Mortgage Settlement crosshairs?

Ocwen Financial (OCN) is almost out of the clear with theNational Mortgage Settlement after more than a year of scrutiny due to problems with the servicer’s Internal Review Group (IRG).

“After a review of the issues I found with Ocwen’s IRG’s integrity and subsequent review of its work to address these problems, I have reported to the Court that I now have a measure of assurance that the issues with Ocwen’s IRG’s independence, competency and capacity have been sufficiently addressed,” said Joseph Smith, Jr., Monitor of the National Mortgage Settlement.

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Mortgage settlement monitor credits Chase with $3.3B in consumer relief

NMS says bank making progress on RMBS relief requirement

National Mortgage Settlement Monitor Joseph Smith released his fifth report on JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s (JPM) residential mortgage-backed securities settlement, detailing the firm’s progress toward satisfying its consumer relief requirements of the settlement.

In his report, Smith confirmed that Chase has provided $3,324,010,726 to 151,436 borrowers through Dec. 31, 2014. Under the settlement, Chase must provide $4 billion in credited relief by Dec. 31, 2017.

“My team and I have completed an in-depth review of Chase’s consumer relief activities through the end of 2014,” Smith said. “As a result of our work, I have credited Chase with more than three-fourths of the $4 billion it must provide under the Settlement.”

This report also includes an update of Chase’s self-reported gross consumer relief, as well as the amount of consumer relief credit claimed by Chase for the first quarter of 2015, which the Monitor has not yet validated.

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Joseph Smith Jr. , monitor for National Mortgage Settlement, discovers one fail Metric 30 at Citi and files his fifth set of compliance report

For immediate release: June 30, 2015

Contact: Hannah Harrill 919-508-7821

NMS Monitor: One Bank Fails New Test, Corrective Actions Working Joseph

Smith discovers one fail at Citi and reports an update on corrective action plans

Raleigh, N.C. – Joseph A. Smith, Jr., Monitor of the National Mortgage Settlement (NMS), today released a summary of five reports he filed with the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. This summary includes updates on compliance by Bank of America, Chase, Citi, Green Tree and Wells Fargo with the NMS mortgage servicing rules during the third and fourth quarters of 2014. Joseph Smith reports in Compliance Update that he and his professionals uncovered one failed test in the second half of 2014. Citi failed one of the new metrics Smith and the Monitoring Committee negotiated related to the loan modification process. Neither Bank of America, Chase, Green Tree nor Wells Fargo failed in any of the metrics tested in the second half of 2014. “I am pleased to see that the servicers are adhering to the NMS’s servicing rules, which aim to give borrowers better experiences,” Smith said. “Among five servicers and over six months, only one failure was uncovered, and of the servicers who had earlier fails to address, the corrective actions put in place were successful. “Green Tree completed eight corrective action plans (CAPs) to address the root causes of its previous fails. During the cure period, which is Green Tree’s chance to fix the issue, I found no evidence of any failures. “Citi failed one of the new metrics the Monitoring Committee and I negotiated to address the loan modification process. It also implemented an approved CAP and cured the fail in the next quarter.”

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Citi fails National Mortgage Settlement loan modification metric

Citi [C] failed one of the new metrics used by the National Mortgage Settlement and the Monitoring Committee regarding loan modifications.

Bank of America, Chase, Green Tree and Wells Fargopassed all the metrics tested in the second half of 2014.

“I am pleased to see that the servicers are adhering to the NMS’s servicing rules, which aim to give borrowers better experiences,” said Joseph Smith, NMS monitor. “Among five servicers and over six months, only one failure was uncovered, and of the servicers who had earlier fails to address, the corrective actions put in place were successful.

“Green Tree completed eight corrective action plans (CAPs) to address the root causes of its previous fails. During the cure period, which is Green Tree’s chance to fix the issue, I found no evidence of any failures.

“Citi failed one of the new metrics the Monitoring Committee and I negotiated to address the loan modification process. It also implemented an approved CAP and cured the fail in the next quarter.”

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Wells Fargo breached national mortgage settlement

Here we go again…

A federal judge has found that Wells Fargo (WFC) breached a nationwide 2010 legal settlement involving adjustable-payment mortgages, finding that the bank did not properly judge and evaluate borrowers who applied for help to avoid foreclosures.

Reuters has the story:

In an order on Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Seeborg in northern California told Wells to meet with plaintiffs and find a way to remedy its violations, including steps to let some homeowners reapply for loan assistance.

Tom Goyda, spokesman for Wells Fargo, the largest U.S. mortgage lender, said the bank is reviewing the decision and will be working to provide additional information requested.

“We’re quite pleased,” said Jeffrey Berns, lead counsel for homeowners. “I don’t know whether this is going to prevent foreclosures but it is certainly going to open (Wells) up to claims for damages from class members.”

The decision is the latest twist in a long-running dispute over the settlement, which resolved complaints about “pick-a-payment loans.” Wells inherited a large portfolio of these loans with its 2008 acquisition of Wachovia Corp.

The loans gave borrowers the option to initially pay less than the interest due, but the escalating payments that came later contributed to waves of home foreclosures in the 2007-2009 housing crisis, which threw the country into recession.

Plaintiffs’ lawyers for years have argued that Wells was not complying with its agreement to grant loan modifications potentially worth up to $2.7 billion to homeowners who took out the loans. The modifications were an important piece of the settlement, which also called for Wells to pay $50 million to class members.

Read the full story here.