Bank of America Admits Foreclosure Mistakes

Share this:

Tweet

Kevin Simpson

Kevin Simpson is the ForeclosureListings.com Sales Manager and is responsible for all data that ForeclosureListings.com shares with press companies.

An investigation by the 50 US states into the U.S mortgage industry has started, amidst allegations of some banks improper handling of documents that may have resulted in homes being foreclosed in error. This is after Bank of America admitted finding a small number of cases with errors, or so they say, in their review process. What is alarming here is the existence of robo-signers within these large institutions, such as the Bank of America, who sign off on foreclosure affidavits without examining the documents. And on top of this, despite incorrect information and missing documents, some foreclosure cases were still being initiated.

According to the bank, these were minor mistakes, caught earlier on in the process, and did not affect the final documents submitted to the courts. These errors were discovered whilst preparing the first 10 to 25 files out of the first few hundred foreclosure cases. Some of the problems uncovered where misspellings of the borrowers names, lack of signatures, missing files and incorrect data. As a precautionary measure, Bank of America halted all foreclosure proceedings pending process review, in late September and early October, and has since lifted this ban as they have declared that their foreclosure processes are in fact intact.

Bank of Americas decision to re-initiate foreclosure proceedings has been seen as the banks attempt at getting past the recent commotions, which is expected, where the bank’s shares have taken a nose dive as investors are rattled by these spate of events. In addition, the bank’s renewed vigor in steaming ahead with their home repossession activities is in response to quelling public fears that the mortgage market is severely flawed. Their aim right now is to restore its public image, and patch up their relations with the government. Key players in the banking industry are closely following the progress of the bank, as Bank of America is one of the most important players in the America’s housing market.

The bank can expect a backlash from the public, as lawyers are now building their cases against the bank, based on robo-signers and missing documents. Based on this, lawyers from all over the Unites States have begun investigating misleading foreclosure proceedings at big banks. There has also been a lot of finger pointing in the media, blaming this foreclosure debacle on over-borrowing home owners and their overzealous lawyers.

Many have labeled this bank crisis as bureaucratic fraud, whilst many speculate that if this problem isn’t nipped in the bud now, it may cause widespread economic havoc. Suffice to say that such a large financial institution such as the Bank of America has now directly contradicted what was initially announced on the 18th of this month, where they noted that "the basis for our foreclosure decisions is accurate." Today however, the Bank of America has admitted that there have been a considerable percentage of errors in their review of pending foreclosures.

Those following this fiasco will be wondering whether there are other vital and potentially hazardous bits of information that this bank, and numerous others, haven’t released to the public yet.