Posts with tag Bank of America

By Andrew Miga WASHINGTON -- A new report says homeowners trying to avoid foreclosure must wait too long for their loan modification applications to be reviewed by some of the nation's top mortgage servicers. Such delays can plunge borrowers deeper in debt. Joseph A. Smith, the independent monitor of last year's... Continue Reading »

Hundreds of thousands of Americans stand to benefit from the latest mortgage-abuse settlement, but consumer advocates say U.S. banks may be getting the best of the deal. Banks have agreed to pay $8.5 billion to settle charges that they wrongfully foreclosed on millions of homeowners in the wake of the 2008 financial... Continue Reading »

U.S. banks have taken another step to clear away the wreckage of the 2008 financial crisis by agreeing to pay $8.5 billion to settle charges that they wrongfully foreclosed on millions of homeowners. The deal announced Monday could compensate hundreds of thousands of Americans whose homes were seized because of abuses... Continue Reading »

Bank of America says it will spend more than $10 billion to settle mortgage claims resulting from the housing meltdown. Under the deal announced Monday, the bank will pay $3.6 billion to Fannie Mae and buy back $6.75 billion in loans that the North Carolina-based bank and its Countrywide banking unit sold to the... Continue Reading »

By Les Christie More than 300,000 homeowners have received $26 billion in relief under the big foreclosure abuse settlement reached earlier this year, according to a recent government report. Five of the country's largest mortgage lenders have modified home loans, reduced interest rates or forgiven debt as part of a... Continue Reading »

Stone Mountain, Ga., resident Kimberly Smith couldn't believe her eyes when she saw how much she was saving on her mortgage under a loan modification with Bank of America. That's not to say that it was a generous amount: Her monthly payments went down by a grand total of $1.61. "It has to be a Halloween joke,"... Continue Reading »

By Christina Rexrode The latest federal lawsuit over alleged mortgage fraud paints an unflattering picture of a doomed lender: Executives at Countrywide Financial urged workers to churn out loans, accepted fudged applications and tried to hide ballooning defaults. The suit, filed Wednesday by the top federal prosecutor... Continue Reading »

The vacant property next door to Chicago resident Mae Campbell has cast a pall over her neighborhood of Austin for more than five years. The home, which she said was owned by Bank of America until very recently, has overgrown grass, water damage and boarded-up windows. "We bought locks to chain it up to keep squatters... Continue Reading »

By Adam Levin It just may become the latest outrage during a year of outrages. At the precise moment when the federal government finally delivers a modicum of justice and some economic relief to millions of homeowners victimized by the nation's largest banks, the government threatens to beat those victims over the head... Continue Reading »

What do you do when the bank-owned house next door is a vacant and blighted mess? If you're these San Diego residents, you remove the garbage piled out front and take it to its rightful owner: the bank itself. The Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, a homeowner advocacy group, gathered dirty rugs,... Continue Reading »

WASHINGTON -- Wells Fargo & Co has agreed to pay $125 million to resolve allegations it discriminated against certain borrowers on the basis of race and national origin in its mortgage lending, the U.S. government said on Thursday. Wells Fargo also agreed to contribute $50 million to help those buyers making down... Continue Reading »

Sidnetta Smith (pictured at left) had to uproot herself and her children and move to North Carolina, leaving half of their belongings behind, when Bank of America foreclosed on their Atlanta home and evicted them. That's painful enough, but there's an added rub: Smith's home wasn't BofA's to take – because the bank... Continue Reading »

By James O'Toole NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Getting served with foreclosure papers made Lynn Szymoniak rich. While she couldn't have known it at the time, that day in 2008 led to her uncovering widespread fraud on the part of some of the country's biggest banks, and ultimately taking home $18 million as a result of her... Continue Reading »

By Samantha Henry A New Jersey appeals court blasted Bank of America this week, chastising the company for the way it handled the case of a woman the court found to be making a good faith effort to hang on to her foreclosed home. In upholding a lower court decision, the New Jersey Superior Court's appellate division... Continue Reading »

LOS ANGELES -- Homeowners with a Bank of America mortgage have good reason to check their mailbox. The lender said Tuesday that it has begun mailing out letters to customers who may qualify to have their home loans reduced as part of a multistate settlement over alleged foreclosure abuses. The Charlotte, N.C.,-based... Continue Reading »