The Association of Mortgage Investors Laments the AG Foreclosure Settlement Filing; It Fails to Adequately Protect Homeowners; Will Likely Negatively Affect Average Americans, Unions, and Seniors

Embargoed until the Settlement Court Filing
Contact: 202-327-8100
Monday, March 12, 2012

The Association of Mortgage Investors Laments the AG Foreclosure Settlement Filing; It Fails to Adequately Protect Homeowners; Will Likely Negatively Affect Average Americans, Unions, and Seniors

The Association of Mortgage Investors (AMI) represents the managers of mutual funds and long-term investors for state and local pension and retirement funds for a range of public institutions, including unions, teachers, and first-responders. AMI members are fiduciaries for their clients. In that capacity, it is incumbent upon them to review any and all situations that would impact their clients’ investments, such as the recent filing of the settlement.

AMI has been on-the-record as supporting a settlement of claims against the mortgage servicers, provided that it does not harm average Americans and their 401Ks. This means that any settlement must be appropriately designed to address such alleged wrongdoing while not settling with the money of innocent parties. The retirement security of these innocent parties will likely be impacted by this settlement as it is currently filed. The settlement was negotiated among the state Attorneys General, the federal government, and certain mortgage servicers. On behalf of the public interest, AMI asks that the settlement be amended in the interest of those not a party to the settlement and not responsible for the claimed bad acts.

As the federal court reviews the final settlement, AMI asks that the following changes be made on behalf of all investors:

Transparency. The NPV (net present value) model incorporated into the settlement must consider all of a borrower’s debts, be national in scope, transparent, and publicly disclosed; the NPV model must be developed by an independent third-party. An incorrect NPV model likely will lead to further re-defaults and further harm distressed homeowners.

Monetary Cap to Protect Public Institutions. As intended, the settlement causes financial loss to the abusers (the bank servicers and their affiliates). Unfortunately, the settlement is expected to also draw billions of dollars from those not a party to the settlement, including public institutions, unions, and individual investors. It places first and second lien priority in conflict with its original construct thereby increasing future homeowner mortgage credit costs. It is unfair to settle claims against the robosigners with other people’s funds. While we request that it not be done, at a minimum we request that a meaningful cap be placed on the dollar amount of the settlement satisfied by innocent parties. Again, restitution should come from those who are settling these claims, and lien priority must be respected.

Public Reporting. We ask that the settlement Administrator be required to make reports public and available on a monthly basis, reporting progress on clearly defined benchmarks and detailing on both a dollar and percentage basis whether the mortgages modified are owned by the mortgage servicers or the general public.
Investor Stakeholder Participation. Our clients and the general public are important stakeholders in this settlement. Yet we were excluded from the negotiations over the past 15 months. As long as we are affected, investors must be included in any further negotiations with additional servicers in the future.

The consequences and the mechanism underlying this settlement greatly concerns investors, including:

  • The establishment of a precedent that condones the bad debts of others are paid by innocent, responsible parties;
  • and, The settlement will undo contractual obligations and have second liens treated in pari passu with other senior debt.

AMI supports long-term, effective, sustainable solutions to the housing foreclosure crisis. It is generally supportive of a settlement if it ensures that responsible borrowers are treated fairly throughout the foreclosure process; while at the same time providing clarity as to investor rights and servicer responsibilities. The ultimate settlement should ensure that our clients, who were not involved in the alleged activities and, who likewise were not a participant in any negotiations, do not bear the cost of the settlement.

Specifically, mortgage servicers, if at all, should only receive limited, reasonable credit for modifying mortgages held by third parties, which are often pension plans, 401K plans, endowments and “Main Street” mutual funds. To do otherwise, will damage the RMBS markets further and limit the ability of average Americans to obtain credit for homes for generations to come.

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The Association of Mortgage Investors represents private investors, public and private pension funds, and endowments, all of whom support the efforts of Congress and the Administration to help responsible, though distressed homeowners avoid foreclosure. For more information, visit www.the-ami.org.

The AMI is now live on Twitter with the most recent news on mortgage investing. Follow us: @MortgageInvest.

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PDF of the release below…

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4closureFraud.org

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The Association of Mortgage Investors Laments the AG Foreclosure Settlement Filing