Donovan: The Foreclosure Fraud Settlement Is Strong Because of the OCC Settlement

I’ve been amused by the consistent pushback from HUD’s Shaun Donovan, who has made himself into a leading figure just by his ubiquitousness, as it relates to the foreclosure fraud settlement. Donovan has been the point person to rebut criticism of the settlement, and he is back again today in CNN.

The settlement, which hasn’t been released or even decided as far as we know, raised so many questions that Donovan has had to divvy up his rebuttal in parts. His subject today is the $2,000 for foreclosure victims, which is pretty indefensible. In fact, Donovan doesn’t really try to defend it. “Some have questioned whether $2,000 is enough redress for families who lost their homes improperly. The answer is obviously no.” He then adds that the money is best seen as a measure of accountability for both foreclosure fraud and servicer abuse, like improper fees or an inability to inform borrowers of options when they fell into delinquency.

Moving away from that inadequate $2,000, Donovan says that there are other ways for individuals to get the restitution they deserve:

For families who suffered much deeper harm — who may have been improperly foreclosed on and lost their homes and could therefore be owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages — the settlement preserves their ability to get justice in two key ways.

First, it recognizes that the federal banking regulators have established a process through which these families can receive help by requesting a review of their file. If a borrower can document that they were improperly foreclosed on, they can receive every cent of the compensation they are entitled to through that process.

Second, the agreement preserves the right of homeowners to take their servicer to court. Indeed, if banks or other financial institutions broke the law or treated the families they served unfairly, they should pay the price — and with this settlement they will.

Rest here…

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4closureFraud.org