Foreclosure Issues Solved?

Nov 12
08:32

2010

rudson tren

rudson tren

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For the past three years, foreclosure cases have raised eyebrows and prompted a group of state bank regulators to investigate. State bank regulators are uncertain about the foreclosures that had been rising across the United States.

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Borrowers may be at the losing end of the foreclosure crisis situation.  It is time for the state officials to get into the details of foreclosure procedure of national banks.

When efforts to get information from J.P. Morgan and Wells Fargo did not materialize,Foreclosure Issues Solved? Articles the state officials thought of bringing up the issue to the bank’s federal regulator.  This request was rejected by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.  As far as overseeing national banks, they are to answer to federal officials only.

The OCC did not want to penetrate too much on the foreclosure operations of the largest national banks.  John Dugan, the comptroller during that time, planned to secure foreclosure information, but thought that probing too much on the issue may cause more confusion.   They relied more on the banks’ in-house assessments.

John Ryan, a senior official at the Conference of State Bank Supervisors, thought there was little reaction at the federal level.  Even if evidence of problems in foreclosure procedures existed, the agency moved in a glacial pace.  Evaluation of bank activities was not done.Light began to seep through the cases of thousands of concerned borrowers.  The major banks decided to review foreclosure procedures and cases were temporarily put on hold.  This, however, posed some problem to the Real Estate market.

The OCC, then, began to evaluate foreclosure operations.  Bank employees were interviewed.  Paperwork was examined.  The OCC and other and other federal bank regulators did not find any problem with the foreclosure procedures.    They are to complete the preliminary investigation and are yet to decide when to make it public.

The OCC failed to take action on rising problems regarding foreclosure activities thinking it was just mere filing of documents when borrowers aren’t able to pay.

Foreclosure activities and procedures had been questionable.  Much evidence of improper practices was brought to light.  These were overlooked by the OCC and regulators.

 Critics say that with OCC’s failure to control foreclosure activities of banks it would lead to more problems, such as housing crisis.  The OCC should have obtained local laws that will restrict lending activities.  Having this will protect borrowers from unmanageable loans.

The OCC officials are placing their efforts on assessing if banks are taking steps to help the borrowers in avoiding foreclosure.   They have prompted banks to mortgage procedure and to get more staff to do the job.  The banks cooperated.  The OCC are to put their efforts in the modification process.