From the category archives:

Government

Ohio Among States Least Helped By Fed Foreclosure Plan

by Moe Bedard

A new study shows that Ohio is one of the states least helped by President Barack Obama’s plan to help borrowers in trouble. It’s a distinction the state can hardly afford. Ohio has long been one of the worst hit states in the country’s foreclosure crisis. ideastream®’s Mhari Saito reports.
According to the US Treasury, just [...]

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FTC Rules Against Michigan Realtors

by Moe Bedard

Realcomp, a National Association of Realtors (NAR) affiliate, failed to release discount real estate listings to its own and other public Web sites and made these listings unavailable on default searches from their database. By restricting access to these listings, the FTC said the company narrowed consumer choice and harmed competition. Realcomp is now required [...]

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FBI Addresses Homeowner Foreclosure Theft

by Moe Bedard

The FBI- Foreclosure theft, as well as mortgage fraud, have become growing problems since the collapse of financial markets last year.
Newburg addressed a crowd of about 60 people, mostly real estate agents, at Tuesday’s presentation. The FBI’s Detroit office handles large-scale mortgage- and foreclosure-related complaints through a hot line.
He said there’s no one set way [...]

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Government Foreclosure Plan Causing Much Confusion

by Moe Bedard

For help she turned to “Making Home Affordable,” or MHA, the Obama administration’s program to help homeowners facing financial hardship, refinance their mortgages and avoid foreclosure.
For the Shrauners, it sounded like the perfect solution: a chance to cut their payments and keep their home.
But it wasn’t that easy. They would soon find that confusion over [...]

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Colorado State Investigating Loan Modification Firms

by Moe Bedard

Division of Real Estate investigators are looking into how loan modification companies charge clients. Charging up front for services that haven’t been rendered is against state law.
“We have dozens of investigations going on right now into loan modification companies for the very same issues that are presenting to this family,” Urban told CBS4.
They also warn [...]

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Monitored Mortgage Workout (MMW) Program Introduced in California

by Moe Bedard

State Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, wants to allow homeowners who have been served a notice of default to enlist the help of a state-appointed monitor to negotiate lenders with the goal of lowering monthly payments.
The mortgage mediation bill, CA AB 1588 titled the “Monitored Mortgage Workout (MMW) Program” would mandate mediation between borrowers and [...]

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Homeowners Not Happy With Government Housing Fix

by Moe Bedard

Trillions spent on propping up banks, buying mortgages, tax credits and new programs designed to lower payments and prevent foreclosures. And yet a new survey from Move Inc., the parent of Realtor.com, says Americans are growing increasingly dissatisfied with how Washington is handling the housing mess.
The October 2009 survey found that the federal government’s approval [...]

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Video: US Treasury Loan Modification Program Debated on CNBC

by Moe Bedard

The Treasury Dept. is out with its loan modification status report. Officials claim the rescue program is on track, but is there something they’re holding back? Susan Wachter, of Wharton; Howard Glaser, a mortgage industry consultant; and CNBC’s Diana Olick discuss.

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Government foreclosure plan is working, but how good is the question

by Moe Bedard

The number of homeowners getting help from the government’s massive foreclosure program is growing, according to data released Tuesday, but it is unclear how many of these borrowers might still lose their homes.
Under the effort, called Making Home Affordable, lenders are paid to lower a borrower’s mortgage payments. The program has struggled since its launch [...]

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FBI Offers Homeowners Tips to Avoid Loan Modification Scams

by Moe Bedard

Consumer Alert: Don’t Let Foreclosure Rescue Schemes Sink You
Fees and Practices Trigger Complaints to FBI and State Investigators
In tough financial times it seems plenty of companies are claiming they can save Utah homeowners from foreclosure. There are a growing number of advertisements offering home loan modifications–or foreclosure rescue plans–for up-front fees. In Salt Lake City, [...]

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California Assemblyman Demands Answers From Lenders

by Moe Bedard

By California Assemblymen Pedro Nava – On October 13, 2009, as Chair, I conducted an informational hearing of the Assembly Banking & Finance Committee to examine current efforts aimed at preventing foreclosures. This hearing gave the committee expert information on the scope of the current problems and the potential for establishing a monitored workout program [...]

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Nevada Loan Modification Company Approved List

by Moe Bedard

Here is a list of Nevada firms still eligible to offer loan modifications. This was posted on the Nevada Division of Mortgage Lending’s Web site  site and will continue to be updated. Illegal Loan Mod firms who were announced yesterday here are no longer authorized to conduct foreclosure prevention services and are given 10 days [...]

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Dennis Kucinich: ‘Hey, you took care of Wall. St. Why didn’t you take care of Main St?

by Moe Bedard

Foreclosures are “hurting families, marriages and lives,” McCoy says.
Georgia leads the country in bank failures—a majority being small community banks. Westmoreland says that little banks are getting hit unfairly, with a widespread ripple effect.
Yet, there’s little indication at the moment that Congress will act anytime soon to stem more foreclosures. Kucinich acknowledged that with Congress [...]

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Panel: Government Foreclosure Plan Failing to Help Homeowners

by Moe Bedard

PHOENIX — Months after President Barack Obama came to Phoenix to announce his plans to fix the foreclosure crisis, some experts and homeowners say a key component of the program is not working.
“From the consumer’s point, it’s a failure,” said Kevin Hardin, Thomson Conant Mortgage Mediation Group Director.
Since the program was announced in February, Hardin’s [...]

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Homeowners: “Hey Congress, Get Off Your A**” – PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION

by Moe Bedard

If you are a homeowner and want to unite with other homeowners fighting to save their homes, please sign the petition below in order to help us help you.
Divided we fall and united we stand!
By Richard Zombeck, the members of LoanSafe.org & Huffington Post:
So, while the banks, servicers, and lenders are waiting for American tenacity to kick [...]

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Mortgage Crisis to be Investigated by the US Government

by Moe Bedard

Chairman Towns’ Statement on Committee Investigation into Mortgage Crisis
Washington, DC – Chairman Edolphus “Ed” Towns (D-NY) today made the following statement on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s investigation into the role of mortgage lenders in the financial services crisis and the economic recession.
“The actions of mortgage lenders contributing to the foreclosure and financial [...]

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Maxine Waters Under Investigation for Husband’s Bank Bailout

by Moe Bedard

WASHINGTON — The House ethics committee said Thursday it’s investigating whether California Rep. Maxine Waters used her influence to help a bank in which her husband owned stock — and whether the couple benefited as a result.
Waters is the No. 3 Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee and chairwoman of its subcommittee on housing. [...]

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Bankers File Lawsuit Against Arizona Governor

by Moe Bedard

Remember when we wrote about a bill that could financially devastate homeowners facing foreclosure, and then we wrote about how it was reversed?
Well, the bill might just be back.
The Arizona Bankers Association — which represents more than 70 banks in the state — has filed a lawsuit in the Arizona Supreme Court against Governor Jan [...]

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Maryland Gov. O’Malley Pushing for Foreclosure Mediation

by Moe Bedard

Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley plans to introduce legislation that would require mediation efforts before foreclosure processes began, a spokesman said Tuesday.
The bill would provide an incentive for lenders who drag their feet to do more to help struggling homeowners, said Shaun Adamec, a spokesman for O’Malley.
“This is a way to level the playing field,” Adamec [...]

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Regulators Warn Bankers of Sweeping Changes

by Moe Bedard

While the Senate’s time has been consumed by healthcare reform and has not made significant progress on financial regulation, Dugan said bankers should not be lulled into thinking a comprehensive reform package will not pass eventually.
“I would not be fooled by that,” he said.
The Obama administration is also planning to send new language to Congress [...]

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Government Loan Modification Numbers Way Off

by Moe Bedard

Mortgage expert and one-time Fannie Mae Chief Credit Officer Edward Pinto blasts the claim that 500,000 homeowners have entered into HAMP (Home Affordable Modification Program).
Based on comments being made by industry participants and program results to date, HAMP is rapidly becoming: I will pretend to modify your loan if you pretend that you will make [...]

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Obama’s Plan is a Particular Disappointment, Consumer Advocates Say

by Moe Bedard

The relative failure of Obama’s plan is a particular disappointment, consumer advocates say. After spending hundreds of billions of dollars in bank bailouts, the administration proposed a plan that would pay mortgage servicers for successfully modifying eligible delinquent home loans. Investors that owned securitized mortgages that were modified would get paid, too. Most importantly, distressed [...]

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Washington One Step Closer to Forming Consumer Protection Agency

by Moe Bedard

Democrats have said the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency would help to reach across various businesses to stop fraud and abusive practices. That regulators didn’t monitor nonbank institutions like mortgage brokers was considered a major factor in subprime lending abuses that led to the housing market crash.
But there’s plenty of fine print that will limit [...]

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Congresswoman Maxine Waters Calls for More Class Action Lawsuits to Prevent Foreclosures

by Moe Bedard

Washington, DC – Congresswoman Maxine Waters (CA-35), Chairwoman of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity, recognizing the impact foreclosures are having on the country, called on the attorneys general from the nation’s 50 states to bring suit against lenders in order to force more loan modifications.
“We need aggressive action to force lenders [...]

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Report says FDIC failed to monitor commercial loans

by Moe Bedard

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. failed to enforce its own guidelines to rein in excessive commercial real estate lending by at least 20 banks that later collapsed, reports by the agency’s watchdog show.
The FDIC’s Office of Inspector General analyzed 23 lenders taken over by regulators from August 2008 to March and found that for 20, [...]

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Federal Reserve & Barney Frank to meet with public

by Moe Bedard

The Federal Reserve will come to the city next month to hear from area residents who have suffered losses due to the financial crisis.
The meeting is set for 6 p.m. on Nov. 1 at St. Patrick’s Church on Main Street.
Sandy Braunstein, of the Federal Reserve’s community affairs office, will be there along with U.S. Reps. [...]

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Obama Administration looks to keep jobless in thier homes

by Moe Bedard

The oversight panel argues in a recent report that the Treasury’s current mortgage modification program focuses on the problem evident early in the financial crisis – subprime mortgages that people can’t afford. Panel member Richard Neiman said the second wave of foreclosures is coming more from a loss of income and unemployment.
“The mortgage crisis may [...]

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A Treasury rule on loan modifications riles the securities market

by Moe Bedard

The $1.7 trillion mortgage securitization market is still a mess, despite (or in part because of) the Federal Reserve’s $700 billion splurge into the market. But another reason may be Treasury’s decision to undermine private mortgage-backed securities (MBS) contracts.
BlackRock Inc. Chairman Laurence Fink went so far recently as to call this “one of the biggest [...]

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‘Buyer’s Choice Act’ (AB 957/Galgiani) Signed Into Law

by Moe Bedard

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Oct. 13 /PRNewswire/ — The Escrow Institute of California announced today that Governor Schwarzenegger signed Assembly Bill 957 into law. This bill, authored by Assembly Member Cathleen Galgiani (D-Tracy), protects consumers by ensuring that they have the right to choose their own real estate service providers when purchasing foreclosed properties.
AB 957, known as [...]

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Senator Katptur: You can go back decades, and you will see that there’s this– revolving door between Wall Street and Washington

by Moe Bedard

BILL MOYERS: Let — let’s look at this story that just– I just read from the Associated Press this week about how Treasury Secretary Geithner is on the phone several times a day with a select group of very powerful Wall Street bankers, especially Citigroup, J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs. He will talk to them when [...]

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Subprime victim gets President’s ear

by Moe Bedard

President Obama said that Ms. Chapman had an “excellent payment history” until she was contacted by a broker who told her that she could lower her monthly mortgage payments. Instead, the loan she got increased the principal she owed on her home by about $20,000 in just nine months. Her monthly payments dropped temporarily but [...]

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The U.S. has miles to go with its mortgage modification plan

by Moe Bedard

With foreclosure filings occurring every 13 seconds in America, is the Obama Administration really moving fast enough to get help for homeowners in trouble? It took about nine months to get 500,000 of them started on the road to mortgage modification.
A half-million homeowners helped is surely progress, but with 2 million foreclosures this year and [...]

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Anti-foreclosure programs are not enough: watchdog

by Moe Bedard

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Government programs to fight the U.S. home foreclosure crisis look increasingly inadequate and should be reworked, expanded and supplemented with new ideas, a congressional watchdog said in a report on Friday.
With a foreclosure filing occurring every 13 seconds, the United States is mired in a housing slump that is destroying billions of [...]

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Panel: Obama Loan-Mod Effort Ill-Suited To Avert Foreclosures

by Moe Bedard

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- The Obama administration’s loan modification effort is ill-suited to tackle the current causes of the foreclosure crisis, financial rescue watchdogs concluded in a new report.
Meanwhile, the Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP, wasn’t designed to address these problems, nor is it geared towards averting a looming wave of foreclosures caused by resetting option adjustable-rate [...]

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Bill proposes mediation before home foreclosure

by Moe Bedard

Senate Republicans have shown little interest in the Democrats’ moratorium bill, shelving it since it passed the House. Sen. John Carey, a southern Ohio Republican who heads the Finance Committee, where the moratorium bill is being considered, said calling timeout on all foreclosures is the wrong approach.
“I think it has the possibility of making things [...]

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US Senate: STOP BEING STUPID

by Moe Bedard

The reason we have this crap going on is quite simple, and fixing it is also quite simple:
Banks are holding homes back and foreclosing when they should be modifying as a direct consequence of the policies and actions of the government.
As just one example the “loss share” agreement made with the buyers of IndyMac has [...]

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Foreclosure law aims to help Oregon homeowners

by Moe Bedard

Senate Bill 628 requires lenders to make a good faith effort to meet in person or on the phone with homeowners having problems making the month mortgage payment.
“What I hope will happen is there will be increased communication between the borrower, and the home owners who are facing foreclosure and their lenders” said Oregon Senator [...]

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Phone Calls Add to Din Over Loans

by Moe Bedard

Congressional Investigators Ask for More on Countrywide VIP Mortgage Program
The discovery that Countrywide Financial Corp. recorded phone conversations with borrowers in a controversial mortgage program that included public officials — and that those recordings have been destroyed — has prompted new congressional calls for more information about the program.
Rep. Darrell Issa of California, the ranking [...]

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SENIOR LOAN OFFICER SENTENCED IN MORTGAGE FRAUD SCHEME

by Moe Bedard

Greenbelt, Maryland – U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow sentenced Winston Thomas, age 43, of New Carrollton, Maryland today to 37 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for failure to file federal tax returns and for conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with a scheme in which he and his [...]

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F.D.I.C. May Borrow Funds From Banks

by Moe Bedard

WASHINGTON — Tired of the government bailing out banks? Get ready for this: officials may soon ask banks to bail out the government.
Senior regulators say they are seriously considering a plan to have the nation’s healthy banks lend billions of dollars to rescue the insurance fund that protects bank depositors. That would enable the fund, [...]

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Super bank regulator planned

by Moe Bedard

Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Connecticut) will propose merging four bank agencies into one super-regulator, a more drastic step than suggested by President Barack Obama, reports the New York Times.
Dodd, who heads the Senate Banking Committee, also is at odds with Obama on the Federal Reserve; Dodd wants to diminish the role of the central bank as [...]

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Unemployed homeowners could get financial assistance

by Moe Bedard

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is engaged in high-level talks about providing financial assistance to homeowners who’ve lost their jobs and can’t afford their mortgage payments.
The Treasury Department held meetings on the subject as recently as Thursday with key stakeholders, according to Laura Armstrong, a spokeswoman for Hope Now, an alliance of non-profits and mortgage [...]

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FTC Announces New Enforcement Actions In Continuing Crackdown On Mortgage Relief Services Scams

by Moe Bedard

The Federal Trade Commission today announced two new law enforcement actions in a continuing crackdown on mortgage foreclosure rescue and loan modification scams, bringing to 22 the number of these cases the Commission has filed since the housing crisis began. The FTC also announced developments in similar pending mortgage-related actions.
“Today’s challenging economy presents an opportunity [...]

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FDIC Packages Loans From Failed Banks

by Moe Bedard

The long-awaited program was announced earlier this year as a way to help banks that remained in business get rid of their soured loans, but a lack of interest from banks led the FDIC to focus on its own holdings instead.
The agency said Wednesday that it would form a partnership with a Texas company, Residential [...]

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California May Start State Monitored Loan Modification Program

by Moe Bedard

Lieu Announces Introduction of Monitored Mortgage Workout Program
Program Would Help Those Hurt by Wall Street Excesses
(SACRAMENTO) – On the one year anniversary of the Lehman Brothers collapse, Assemblymember Ted Lieu (D-Torrance) today announced the introduction of AB 1588, the Monitored Mortgage Workout Program, which would provide for state-appointed monitors to ensure homeowners have a chance [...]

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