WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
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This week, the Indiana Attorney General’s Office is mailing out $26.3 million dollars in settlement checks to qualifying Hoosiers. The checks will go to mortgage borrowers who lost their homes to foreclosure between January 1st, 2008 and December 31st, 2011. The payments come from the National Mortgage Settlement, as compensation for mortgage servicing abuse by the country’s five largest mortgage servicing banks: Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Ally – formerly GMAC. In February 2012, 49 state attorneys general and the Federal Government announced a historic joint state-federal settlement with the five banks, after state and federal investigations found that their mortgage foreclosure practices violated state and federal law – primarily through what has come to be called “robo-signing.” The concerned states accused banks’ mortgage officers of routinely signed foreclosure documents without the presence of a notary public, and without knowing whether the document’s contents were correct. The settlement provides benefits to borrowers whose loans are owned or serviced by the settling banks. Indiana’s share of the overall settlement was about $145 million dollars. The Indiana State Legislature directed approximately $100 million dollars to direct assistance to Indiana borrowers who lost their homes due to foreclosure, or to distressed borrowers who are trying to refinance and save their homes. The remaining funds – about $43.8 million dollars – went to the Indiana Attorney General’s Office, which put roughly half of the money into the Low-Income Energy Assistance Program. Yesterday, WFHB News Director Alycin Bektesh spoke with Deputy Attorney General Abbey Kuzma about the lawsuit, and the resulting settlement, for today’s WFHB feature exclusive.
