Mortgage

Big Banks Mortgage Pact Going About As Well As You Would Expect

You’ll never guess what is happening! The too-big-to-fail banks are botching the mortgage pact that was made after they botched the mortgages in the first place. Another surprise is that both the aforementioned banks and big government are both furrowing their brows and vowing to fix this new mess, even better than they fixed it before (yes — sarcasm). The biggies (banks and government) are, of course, both outraged at this turn of events. Here is one bureaucrat desperately trying to stay on the right side of politics… uh…I mean showing real concern:

“Delays in the foreclosure process result in homeowners falling further behind,” said Shaun Donovan, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, during a Wednesday news conference. “This is unacceptable.”

And by “unacceptable”, he means that he is very annoyed that he is forced to comment on this issue and besides it is big banks, not big government oversight that is to blame. Another intrepid government employee, this time the “independent” monitor in charge of overseeing the entire mortgage mess also shows some concern about the very thing that he is in charge of:

The report “confirms what I’ve been hearing from people out in the field, which is that we still have work to do on the loan-modification process,” said Mr. Smith. He added that his office has received nearly 60,000 complaints from homeowners.

By “the report”, he is referring to his report that some undoubtedly persnickety type required be put into the mortgage pact. So, this admittedly inconvenient report that he wrote seems to confirm what he has heard “out in the field”. Plus, had he never stepped foot onto any field, or even the parking lot for that matter, those 60,000 (60,000?!) might have given him a clue as well.

On the bank side, the too-big-to-fail behemoths have apparently yet to hear any reports from Mr. Smith’s fields, phones or anything else. In fact, things seem to be going just ducky:

Bank of America and J.P. Morgan last month said they had finished doling out the required aid under the settlement, and Wells Fargo had said it was 90% complete.

Well, isn’t that a relief. The linked article goes on and on about the fighting between the government and the banks, with the usual bureaucratic quotes such as “unacceptable”, “accountability”, miscommunication” and blah, blah, blah. None of it sounds the least bit convincing, but then that is probably what they expect. As long as it is good enough to sound as if something is being done then both parties will feel just dandy. Maybe, after a little more posturing, the banks will pay the government a few more dollars (without admitting any wrongdoing of course!). That way everyone feels good. Well, except the mortgage holders, of course, but who said that government or the banks care about them?

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