Mortgage complaints grow
By Charlene Crowell NNPA Columnist
In mid-March, the monitor for the National Mortgage Settlement announced that participating banks had completed terms of the agreement affecting 49 states. Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo collectively provided more than $20 billion in borrower relief to more than 600,000 troubled homeowners.
Of this money, at least $10 billion was used to reduce principal owed on homes with market values lower than their mortgages and others that were either delinquent or at-risk of default. Another $3 billion benefited borrowers who were able to refinance their homes at lower interest rates than their original mortgages. The remaining seven billion dollars assisted a variety of programs from service members who were forced to sell their homes at a loss, to anti-blight efforts, short sales and transitional assistance.
Despite these positive steps, the housing crisis is still not over for far too many house-holds. New data released by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) reveals that mortgages remain the number one complaint category for the second consecutive year. In 2013, mortgage complaints filed with CFPB grew to 60,000, up from 19,250 complaints the previous year.
CFPB Director Richard Cordray said, “At a market level, complaints give us insight into what is happening to consumers across the country, right now. They are also our compass and make a difference by informing our work and helping us identify and prioritize problems for potential supervisory, enforcement and regulatory action.”
When CFPB analyzed consumers’ mortgage concerns, loan modification, collections and foreclosures accounted for nearly 60 percent of those received. Other mortgage complaints included loan servicing, payments, escrow accounts, mortgage brokers and origination.
The irony of the continuing mortgage saga is that the national settlement called for new servicing standards that would correct the kinds of conduct that harmed consumers in recent years. The settlement also included explicit servicing requirements to remedy key problem areas:
