US Congress may Establish Nationwide Foreclosure Standards
Fed Governor Dan Tarullo believes that there is a need for US Congress to enact a new legislation that would set national standards for foreclosures. He said there is a need to make sure the same problems would not be encountered again in the future.
US Federal Reserve Governor Dan Tarullo has hinted that the US Congress may enact a law that would set federal standards that cover foreclosure procedures. Mr. Tarullo said the national standard could help prevent possible repetition of the previous affidavit scandal within the mortgage servicing sector. The Fed governor last week testified before the Senate Banking Committee,
which heard issues regarding the current foreclosure fiasco.
Mr. Tarullo opined that there are many factors that should be considered when intending to avoid a similar problem in the long term. He said legislators and regulators should take note of the shortcomings involved in staff training, required coordination among foreclosure and loan modification personnel, and overall management or oversight of independent (third-party) servicers. He added that addressing such factors have to be fixed to bring up fundamental changes that are necessary to prevent similar problems in the future.
It should be noted that not all mortgage lenders have such problems. But Mr. Tarullo emphasized that the issues have been widespread enough to cause massive structural setbacks in the country’s mortgage servicing industry. According to him, the mortgage servicing sector is also not yet ready to adequately and properly handle high volume of distressed properties and foreclosed homes that are presently flooding the market.
The Senate Banking Committee has apparently taken Mr. Tarullo’s observations and recommendations under consideration. Senator Chris Dodd has asked Mr. Tarullo to provide more specific ideas and recommendations about new legislations and even possible law amendments that could help deal with the problem in the coming months.
The Fed governor and several other regulators were summoned by the senate committee, because of allegations that watchdog agencies failed to properly regulate the foreclosure practices in most major mortgage lenders. At the center of the issue were numerous complaints from homeowners who claim that banks mishandled their foreclosure documents.
The complainants claim that they were improperly evicted from their homes without appropriate and due process. For their part, some lenders have admitted their ‘robo-signing’ practices, wherein they hired third-party signers to finalize thousands of foreclosure documents in as fast as a day.
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