The Federal Government and 49 state attorneys general reached a landmark settlement with the nation’s five largest mortgage servicers that will provide $20 billion to help struggling homeowners.
The full $25 billion settlement, the largest ever of its kind, is the result of a joint effort between federal law enforcement and the states to investigate the abusive and irresponsible mortgage industry practices that led to the collapse of the housing market and cost more than 4 million American families their homes due to foreclosure.
These millions of families millions of Americans did the right thing and the responsible thing — shopped for a house, secured a mortgage that they could afford, made their payments on time – lost their homes and their nest eggs due to the irresponsible actions of others: by lenders who sold loans to people who couldn’t afford them; by speculators who were looking to make a quick buck; by banks that took risky mortgages, packaged them up, and traded them off for large profits; by companies that used fake signatures and shortcuts to process foreclosures more quickly, sometimes on houses that hadn’t been verified as legitimate foreclosure cases to begin with.
These practices were plainly irresponsible, and President Obama refused to let them go unanswered. Under the terms of this settlement, America’s biggest banks — banks that were rescued by taxpayer dollars — will be required to right these wrongs. That means more than just paying a fee.
Fonte: White House