Banks to Pay Billions Over Foreclosure Violations

As of today, five of America’s largest banks have agreed to a $25 billion dollar settlement over foreclosure violations. Bank of America, CitiBank, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo and GMAC were confronted by 49 Attorney Generals representing every state except Oklahoma.

Montana is estimated to receive nearly $20.4 million dollars which will be used for new protections for homeowners, counseling services, loan modifications, and direct payments to homeowners who lost their homes to foreclosure between 2008 and 2011.

The settlement came about after a national investigation into the way the banks were signing foreclosure paperwork. The main fault was the common use of a process known as “robo-signing,” wherein the banks would sign foreclosure paperwork without observation by a notary public. This is a clear violation of state and federal law. Often, the details in the paperwork were not even verified by the signer.

One of the Attorney Generals involved in the case was Montana’s own Steve Bullock. Bullock had this to say about the settlement, “I am pleased to join this national settlement and am particularly pleased that it is the result of a truly bi-partisan effort with my Republican and Democratic colleagues across the country. I am committed to putting the resources available through this settlement to work as soon as possible, to do all we can do in partnership with housing counselors throughout the state to reach out and help struggling homeowners. I will announce more specific information about these efforts in the near future.”

Look for KGVO updates on this story in the near future.