Senators want the foreclosure records of the banks to be revealed so as to resolve the issue of rampant continuation of robo-signing. Senator Mari Cantwell (Democrat/Washington) together with Senator Robert Menendez (Democrat/New Jersey) and eight other senators sent a letter on last Wednesday 20th July to the regulators. They want release of all information regarding how the banks have operated there foreclosures. In the letter Cantwell and the others have expressed their hope in the letter sent to the OCC (Office of the Comptroller of the Currency), FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) as well as the Federal Reserve that this would put a stop to illegal foreclosure activities.
Washington State ranks fifteenth among the states with the highest foreclosure rate during the first six months of the current year. There have been 29,398 foreclosures as per RealtyTrac. The senators contended that the wrong activities including robo-signing are continuing on a big scale. They feel that if the regulators reveal how each of the banks are carrying on with their operation it would help in getting to the root of the problem.
The letter pointed out that the reviews pertaining to foreclosure were being done by consultants chosen by the servicers themselves; these consultants are often reliant on the servicers for their future business and as such would obviously not go against their mentors.
The letter also stated, “We believe that the full disclosure of these documents to the public is necessary given the recent reports by both the Associated Press and Reuters of the continued widespread practice of robo-signing among mortgage servicers”.
Already however many steps have been initiated to better the operations. Lawsuits have been filed against the banks, orders are being enforced and fines have been imposed. If it is found that the surmises of the senators are true and that the wrong practices continue to plague the mortgage world then it indicates that the previous attempts to erase the lapses have not been successful.
A new separate oversight agency that is meant to be a watchdog guarding the interests of the consumers has been set up – Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. It has just recently started to function officially. The setting up of this bureau was included in the financial reform bill of Dodd-Frank of 2010 that introduced new regulations on the financial entities.
