Mortgage Loan Compliance | Arizona vs. Bank of America

State Attorney General Terry Goddard said Friday as he filed a civil lawsuit against Bank of America Corp. for violating Arizona's consumer fraud law by misleading consumers who tried to reduce their mortgage payments so they could keep their homes.

Hundreds of homeowners kept making their mortgage payments because Bank of America repeatedly assured them their loan was being modified, he said. Instead, many lost their homes anyway.

"Those people could have used that money for something else," Goddard said. "They were deceived into continuing to make mortgage payments when they had no hope of saving their homes."

The attorney general's office was deluged with consumer complaints and launched an investigation more than a year ago, Goddard said. Settlement talks with Bank of America began in April but ultimately collapsed Thursday.

The bank also violated the terms of a 2009 consent agreement requiring the bank's Countrywide mortgage subsidiary to implement a loan modification program, the lawsuit alleges.
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Mortgage Loan Compliance | Investors Give Bank of America More Talk Time

Bank of America and a group of investors demanding the bank buy back soured mortgages it sold to them have agreed to extend talks aimed at resolving their dispute.

The group of eight investors seeking put-backs from Bank of America includes the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Freddie Mac, Pimco Investment Management and Blackrock Financial Management. The investors own interests in a slate of 115 transactions with an original principal balance of $104 billion. Now the balance is $46 billion.

The investors want Bank of America to buy back defaulted mortgages made by its Countrywide unit, which the Charlotte-based bank acquired in July 2008. They argue that Countrywide's practice of modifying loans found to have faulty paperwork or those written outside of normal underwriting standards breached signed agreements with the investors.

By continuing to service bad loans rather than speeding up foreclosures, the group claims, Countrywide ran up servicing fees, enriching itself at the expense of investors.

Bank of America, however, has described the loan modifications as the "proper response to an unprecedented housing crisis and in furtherance of the stated policy of the federal government."

It called claims of poorly handled loans baseless.

The bank and a law firm representing the investors said Wednesday they would go beyond a 60-day discussion period triggered by a letter sent to the bank in mid-October. The bank did not say whether there was a new time limit set on the talks.

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Mortgage Loan Compliance® | The Forensic Loan Audit Company

Get The Facts, Audit Your Loan, and Protect Your Rights!

Call Today 1-866-966-6615 or Visit www.ml-compliance.com