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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsObama Administration Asks Banks to Regulate Their Own Foreclosure Abuses
Having bungled the so-called independent review of foreclosure mistakes, the Obama administration has now decided that the best way to help homeowners is to have the bankswhich were responsible for the foreclosure errorsexamine the case files and decide how best to fix the situation.
In January, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) shut down the foreclosure review by independent consultantswhich had already cost about $2 billion after it was revealed that the banks had selected said consultants. The process also proved to be taking too long to resolve homeowner grievances, so the administration decided to reach a $3.6 billion settlement with the banks.
But before the money can be distributed to individuals wronged during the foreclosure crisis, more than four million cases need to be reviewed. Instead of federal regulators doing the work, they are trusting the financial institutions, including Bank of America and Wells Fargo, to do it properly this time.
Housing advocates, not surprisingly, are worried the banks will shortchange homeowners while they scrutinize their earlier mistakes. The whole process has been a slap in the face to homeowners and a slap on the wrist to banks, Isaac Simon Hodes, an organizer with Massachusetts-based Lynn United for Change, told The New York Times. The latest development shows how there has been no accountability.
http://www.allgov.com/news/top-stories/obama-administration-asks-banks-to-regulate-their-own-foreclosure-abuses-130215?news=847076
forestpath
(3,102 posts)woo me with science
(32,139 posts)Angry Dragon
(36,693 posts)I suppose we should have killers be their own jury and everything will work out .........
I sit here shaking my head
The Straight Story
(48,121 posts)I would probably have less hidden that way
magellan
(13,257 posts)Gee, what a great idea! I'm going to try that next time someone breaks into my home and starts stealing things.
"Please, I'd really appreciate it if you didn't take quite so much...."
City Lights
(25,171 posts)Nothing could go wrong, right?
ananda
(28,866 posts)Sickmaking.
Enrique
(27,461 posts)bungled like a fox.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)Thomas Curry, head of the OCC since 2012 (it had an acting head since 2010), was the person Senator Warren addressed in the banking hearing. The process was costly and ineffective.
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Despite billing for roughly $2 billion in fees in the 14-month review, consultants examined only a sliver of the 500,000 complaints filed by homeowners, people involved in the matter said. Their efforts were stymied, in part, because regulators urged consultants to first scrutinize a random sample of the four million foreclosures before digging into specific homeowner complaints, the people involved said. The decision, the people said, may have undercut the scope of the settlement and potentially deprived homeowners of additional relief.
Consultants were also criticized for a faulty review process.
Some consulting firms, including the Promontory Financial Group, farmed out much of the work to contract employees. Others faced questions about their objectivity. The consultants, critics note, were paid billions of dollars by the same banks they were expected to police.
Some consultants say they sounded repeated alarms about the process. Last spring, a group of consulting firm executives met with comptroller officials in Washington to voice concerns that the reviews were too narrow, according to people with direct knowledge of the meetings....The review process, with its narrow focus, was created by the comptrollers office in 2011, under previous leadership.
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/02/12/big-banks-are-told-to-review-their-own-foreclosures/
When regulating agencies don't do their jobs, it really screws things up.
Baitball Blogger
(46,736 posts)Lawyers love to self-regulate. Which is why our world is so screwed up today.
Just a theory.
amandabeech
(9,893 posts)Lawyers would probably rather than the government regulate, because then the lawyers would be called in to represent clients before the governmental regulators. That means more fees for the lawyers.
If the banks regulate themselves, even under federal statutes, it would mean less money for the lawyers.
Now, lawyers who advocate self-regulation are doing so because they're getting a hefty fee for their lobbying work.
For lawyers, its about the fee.
Always.
Take it from an ex-lawyer.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)woo me with science
(32,139 posts)liberal_at_heart
(12,081 posts)forestpath
(3,102 posts)woo me with science
(32,139 posts)TheKentuckian
(25,026 posts)No longer unique but still less than worthless and Orwellian in concept.
Plus, the failure was willfully weaved into the fabric, there always are enough gremlins to screw up the works, you don't let the regulated choose their regulators to be sure it goes off the rails.