NACA, the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America says Fannie Mae was bailed out by the government with taxpayer money, but now Fannie Mae is turning its back on the same people whose money bailed them out.
NACA is led by one of the most controversial and effective consumer advocates in the country, Bruce Marks. A man who has no problem getting in the billion dollar faces of these lending institutions and his protests have achieved phenomenal results in the mortgage industry for consumers and homeowners.
Marks is known in the consumer advocate industry as the “Junkyard Dog” and operates his incredibly powerful non-profit out of a modest office above an electrical supply store in Boston. In an area known as the Jamaica Plains.
Over the years Bruce Marks has become one of the most feared men in the corporate boardrooms of the nation’s leading financial institutions in the home mortgage lending industry. Bringing down billion dollar CEO’s to their knees who scramble to make deals with his in your face protests to strike deals with the notoriously confrontational NACA.
Marks once infamously called himself a “bank terrorist.”
The most recent protest was held outside Fannie’s headquarters in Washington D.C. yesterday and NACA’s mission was to shine a media spot light on the fact that the home mortgage giant is setting poor “Accepted Servicing Practices,” adhered to by the rest of the mortgage servicing industry.
Marks and NACA are accusing the government backed institution, Fannie Mae of “failing” in terms of helping at-risk borrowers find long-term solutions to their housing woes and “has become a major road block” in providing long term mortgage restructuring, according to the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America
NACA highlighted these Fannie Mae Predatory Servicing Traits:
<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>Homeowners must be four months delinquent before receiving some type of loan workout.
<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>Interest rate reductions, when implemented, are limited by the current market rate.
<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>Most all loan modifications are offered at interest only and equate to renting since no equity is created.
<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>In nearly all cases, Fannie Mae will not reduce principal balances on delinquent loans.
<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>Primary solution for struggling homeowners has been the HomeSaver Advance program, that simply puts the unpaid arrearage into a second loan, without addressing affordability concerns.
<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>Fannie Mae is doing very little to delay foreclosure sales for homeowners whose foreclosure ARE preventable.
NACA and Bruce Marks led approximately 100 consumer activists and homeowners this past Wednesday to Fannie Mae’s front steps. The organization’s carefully planned protest was successful in forcing a meeting with the newly appointed Fannie Mae CEO, Herbert Allison and other top managers on Wednesday afternoon.
Fannie Mae CEO, Allison was brought in to lead Fannie in September after the government took over both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The two lending giants guarantee approximately $5 trillion of U.S. home mortgages which equate to nearly 50% of all home loans in the country.
After the protest, Marks and NACA met with the Fannie CEO and other top managers and agreed to continue to meet and work together on foreclosure prevention.