Foreclosures by Major Banks Increase 21.1% in Third Quarter
Foreclosures by Major Banks Increase 21.1% in Third Quarter
By Jim Puzzanghera, Los Angeles Times, Dec. 22, 2011
Foreclosures by major banks jumped 21.1 percent in the third quarter as voluntary holds for paperwork problems were lifted, according to federal regulators. But the number of homes en route to being seized fell 15.8 percent in October, according to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
BofA to pay $335 million to Settle Loan-bias Case
By Walter Hamilton, Los Angeles Times, Dec. 22, 2011
Bank of America Corp. agreed to pay a record $335 million to resolve a government claim that its Countrywide Financial unit discriminated against minority home buyers during the frenzied days of the mortgage boom.
What Fannie and Freddie Knew
By EDITORIAL, Wall Street Journal, Dec. 21, 2011
Democrats have spent years arguing that private lenders created the housing boom and bust, and that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac merely came along for the ride. This was always a politically convenient fiction, and now thanks to the unlikely source of the Securities and Exchange Commission we have a trail of evidence showing how the failed mortgage giants turbocharged the crisis.
Proof That OCC Foreclosure Reviews Were a Sham
By Michael Olenick, Naked Capitalism, Dec. 22, 2011
“There Goes the Neighborhood,” which ran on 60 Minutes last Sunday, is a must-see piece. Scott Pelley walks through a pillaged house in Cleveland, slated for demolition in a county neighborhood stabilization program. This abandoned house is owned by Structured Asset Investment Trust 2003-BC11. An investor reports lists the property as “in foreclosure” despite no court filing. Ohio is a judicial foreclosure state, so a foreclosure filing requires a lawsuit, but there isn’t one.
The Watchdogs That Didn't Bark
By Scott Paltrow, Reuters, Dec. 22, 2011
Four years after the banking system nearly collapsed from reckless mortgage lending, federal prosecutors have stayed on the sidelines, even as judges around the country are pointing fingers at possible wrongdoing.