Here they are…
More to come as we sort through them..
SETTLEMENT DOCUMENTS
- Complaint (pdf)
- Ally/GMAC Settlement (pdf)
- Bank of America Settlement (pdf)
- Citi Settlement (pdf)
- JPMorgan Chase Settlement (pdf)
- Wells Fargo Settlement (pdf)
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
SETTLEMENT PARTIES
- Ally/GMAC: 800-766-4622
- Bank of America: 877-488-7814
- Citi: 866-272-4749
- JPMorgan Chase: 866-372-6901
- Wells Fargo: 800-288-3212
- State Attorneys General
- Conference of State Bank Supervisors
- United States Department of Justice
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
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$25 Billion Mortgage Servicing Agreement Filed in Federal Court
WASHINGTON – The Justice Department, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and 49 state attorneys general announced today the filing of their landmark $25 billion agreement with the nation’s five largest mortgage servicers to address mortgage loan servicing and foreclosure abuses.
The federal government and state attorneys general filed in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia proposed consent judgments with Bank of America Corporation, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Company, Citigroup Inc. and Ally Financial Inc., to resolve violations of state and federal law.
The unprecedented joint agreement is the largest federal-state civil settlement ever obtained and is the result of extensive investigations by federal agencies, including the Department of Justice, HUD and the HUD Office of the Inspector General (HUD-OIG), and state attorneys general and state banking regulators across the country.
The consent judgments provide the details of the servicers’ financial obligations under the agreement, which include payments to foreclosed borrowers and more than $20 billion in consumer relief; new standards the servicers will be required to implement regarding mortgage loan servicing and foreclosure practices; and the oversight and enforcement authorities of the independent settlement monitor, Joseph A. Smith Jr.
The consent judgments require the servicers to collectively dedicate $20 billion toward various forms of financial relief to homeowners, including: reducing the principal on loans for borrowers who are delinquent or at imminent risk of default and owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth; refinancing loans for borrowers who are current on their mortgages but who owe more on their mortgage than their homes are worth; forbearance of principal for unemployed borrowers; anti-blight provisions; short sales; transitional assistance; and benefits for service members.
The consent judgments’ consumer relief requirements include varying amounts of partial credit the servicers will receive for every dollar spent on the required relief activities. Because servicers will receive only partial credit for many of the relief activities, the agreement will result in benefits to borrowers in excess of $20 billion. The servicers are required to complete 75 percent of their consumer relief obligations within two years and 100 percent within three years.
In addition to the $20 billion in financial relief for borrowers, the consent judgments require the servicers to pay $5 billion in cash to the federal and state governments. Approximately $1.5 billion of this payment will be used to establish a Borrower Payment Fund to provide cash payments to borrowers whose homes were sold or taken in foreclosure between Jan. 1, 2008, and Dec. 31, 2011, and who meet other criteria.
The court documents filed today also provide detailed new servicing standards that the mortgage servicers will be required to implement. These standards will prevent foreclosure abuses of the past, such as robo-signing, improper documentation and lost paperwork, and create new consumer protections. The new standards provide for strict oversight of foreclosure processing, including third-party vendors, and new requirements to undertake pre-filing reviews of certain documents filed in bankruptcy court. The new servicing standards make foreclosure a last resort by requiring servicers to evaluate homeowners for other loss mitigation options first. Servicers will be restricted from foreclosing while the homeowner is being considered for a loan modification. The new standards also include procedures and timelines for reviewing loan modification applications and give homeowners the right to appeal denials. Servicers will also be required to create a single point of contact for borrowers seeking information about their loans and maintain adequate staff to handle calls.
The consent judgments provide enhanced protections for service members that go beyond those required by the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA). In addition, the servicers have agreed to conduct a full review, overseen by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, to determine whether any service members were foreclosed or improperly charged interest in excess of 6 percent on their mortgage in violation of SCRA.
The oversight and enforcement authorities of the settlement’s independent monitor are detailed in the court documents filed today. The monitor will oversee implementation of the servicing standards and consumer relief activities required by the agreement and publish regular public reports that identify any quarter in which a servicer fell short of the standards imposed in the settlement. The consent judgments require servicers to remediate any harm to borrowers that are identified in quarterly reviews overseen by the monitor and, in some instances, conduct full look-backs to identify any additional borrowers who may have been harmed. If a servicer violates the requirements of the consent judgment it will be subject to penalties of up to $1 million per violation or up to $5 million for certain repeat violations.
The consent judgments filed today resolve certain violations of civil law based on mortgage loan servicing activities. The agreement does not prevent state and federal authorities from pursuing criminal enforcement actions related to this or other conduct by the servicers. The agreement does not prevent the government from punishing wrongful securitization conduct that will be the focus of the new Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Working Group. In the servicing agreement, the United States also retains its full authority to recover losses and penalties caused to the federal government when a bank failed to satisfy underwriting standards on a government-insured or government-guaranteed loan; the United States also resolved certain Federal Housing Administration (FHA) origination claims with Bank of America as part of this filing and with Citibank in a separate matter. The agreement does not prevent any action by individual borrowers who wish to bring their own lawsuits. State attorneys general also preserved, among other things, all claims against the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems (MERS), and all claims brought by borrowers.
Investigations were conducted by the U.S. Trustee Program of the Department of Justice, HUD-OIG, HUD’s FHA, state attorneys general offices and state banking regulators from throughout the country, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado, the Justice Department’s Civil Division, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of South Carolina, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program and the Federal Housing Finance Agency-Office of the Inspector General. The Department of the Treasury, the Federal Trade Commission, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the U.S. Department of Agriculture made critical contributions.
For more information about the mortgage servicing settlement, go to www.NationalMortgageSettlement.com. To find your state attorney general’s website, go to www.NAAG.org and click on “The Attorneys General.”
The joint federal-state agreement is part of enforcement efforts by President Barack Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force. President Obama established the interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force to wage an aggressive, coordinated and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes. The task force includes representatives from a broad range of federal agencies, regulatory authorities, inspectors general and state and local law enforcement who, working together, bring to bear a powerful array of criminal and civil enforcement resources. The task force is working to improve efforts across the federal executive branch, and with state and local partners, to investigate and prosecute significant financial crimes, ensure just and effective punishment for those who perpetrate financial crimes, combat discrimination in the lending and financial markets, and recover proceeds for victims of financial crimes. For more information about the task force visit: www.stopfraud.gov.
SOURCE: DOJ
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Question for anyone here: since this has been filed with the courts, and subject to the courts’ approval is there any way, should we be so lucky to get a new president, that this can be overturned or made null and void by a new incoming president? Who approves this anyway? What court? One judge or several? Supreme court judges? This was a settlement for out of court brought on by the DOJ…..so how can the DOJ or an AG take actions that would preclude my rights as an individual or the very principle of due process of law? You mean to tell me that this Settlement is in lieu of any prosecution of crimminal acts that have been committed by these banksters? What’s next…..? Banding of all the murderers and going for a nationwide settlement? This is insane!
There should be no surprise at the blatant covering up by the government in this situation.
I just would like for Michael to know that I get what has occurred here at this site..and I know that the Government is monitoring everything that we are saying and they are scared of being exposed for who they really are….Therefore, because I do have the utmost respect for Michael and his website, from here on, I will use facts to demonstrate why I hate all of them is because they hate all of us, our Freedom, Democracy, our U.S. CONSTITUTION, ANY PERSONAL WEALTH OR PRIVATE OWNERSHIP OF PROPERTY BY ANY OF US, our U.S. BILL OF RIGHTS and OUR NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY…… and I will expose what they are trying to do to America with the verifiable facts and expose who they are with completely verifiable facts from here on out.. I will expose their hatred for all of us, our freedom, our prosperity and their lack of respect and hatred for the U.S. CONSTITUTION and THE U.S. BILL OF RIGHTS, THE RULE OF LAW, and the NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY of THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA will then be fully exposed and the truth will therefore be undeniable because it will be proven by them and their actions against all I have stated above…..these verifiable facts therefore will prove unequivocably just how incredibly evil their plans for all us are as well as who the commisars are..
The reality is the servicers are servicing fraud..if their is no legal lien. Therefore, the servicers are criminals.
My AG has no authoriry to speak for me.
Not that I am enamored by any aspect of this sweeping under the rug, but a penalty of a minimum of $1 million per incident is quite substantial. Of course, the devil is in the details re: “If a servicer violates the requirements of the consent judgment it will be subject to penalties of up to $1 million per violation or up to $5 million for certain repeat violations.”. What are those “requirements”?
I think we need to let this battle go (as if we ever played a part) and shift our attention to things we can control.
They’re all the same…each PDF mentions only BOA….????
What a complete waste of time to even craft this non-settlement. From what parts I did read regarding principle reduction it says the payment must be reduced by 10% which means a 1000 dollar monthly payment will drop all the way to 900 dollars. Thats it the housing crisis is solved. Dopes. I did see Ms. Bondi already has her signature on it.
Well, what else would you expect from our bankster owned government ? The banksters threatened the AG’s not to handle their states bond offerings anymore, and the AG’s folded up like a cheap suit. A 25 billion dollar settlement supposedly, which will only cost the banksters 5 billion ? They paid themselves 175 billion last year in bonuses !! What a sad joke our gov’t has become….