CREDITORS CAN ONLY GET PAID ONCE
Editor’s Note: If you are news junkie like I am and watch and read everything about the financial markets it is absolutely amazing how everyone seem to be in agreement that we are headed for a financial cliff and nobody wants to do anything about it.
Sen Merkley, with help from local organizers, is proposing a new bill that will require reductions in the principal due on residential loans. This isn’t hard folks, it just takes the guts to say the banks lied and they are still lying to us about the status of the loans, the origination of the loans and the money that has come and gone relating to these loans.
There are two basic reasons why loan balances should be corrected: (1) simple arithmetic in an accounting and (2) the reality that people are simply not going to make a decision to keep their families enslaved to a mortgage (real or void) that will never justify itself in the marketplace because the original appraisal was artificially and fraudulently inflated.
In the first instance, the banks and servicers must be virtually removed from the equation because they never funded or bought any of these loans but they engaged in selling them as if they were owned by the banks. By taking out insurance, receiving bailouts, receiving proceeds from credit default swaps, just for a few examples, the banks were acting as agents for the investor lenders who were the only actual people to put up cash dollars. All the rest was paper pretending to be worth something.
An accounting from BOTH the Master Servicer and all subservicers will clear up all the money that came in from investors, borrowers and other parties and all the money that went out. We can then determine how much was paid or should have been paid by the banks as fiduciaries or agents of the investors. My analysis of hundreds of loans indicates that the total payments received on behalf of the real creditors was actually more than the obligation owed to that creditor which means that for that creditor, the loan proceeds should be corresponding reduced. That means the notice of default, notice of sale, foreclosure lawsuit are all based upon fake figures that at the very least should be reduced.
Under our laws, if a borrower has been defrauded under these facts, he is entitled to restitution under civil or criminal proceedings, which means that payments of actual money to actual recipients who may or may not have turned the money over to actual investors should be credited to the investor and therefore correspondingly reduce the principal due on loans funded by that creditor. They can only get paid once. If there are excesses that are legal, then I agree that it is an entirely separate matter as to whom that money should go, but to foreclose on a homeowner where the creditor has been entirely or mostly paid is absurd.
The second reason is equally simple as the mere adding and subtraction of a proper accounting. Nobody expects a businessman to languish without income in a failing business. He will walk from it, declaring bankruptcy or otherwise making arrangements with creditors. Somehow this basic principle has been warped, most recently by the renegade DeMarco in a moral hazard if a homeowner reaches the same conclusion. Whether you agree with the moral hazard argument or not, it is a simple fact that people WILL walk from the homes or stay as long as possible without paying a dime to get some of their equity back, if they find themselves in a failed investment that can never recover. It’s going to happen whether you like the idea or not. Better to manage the situation than have homes go without ANY bidding because the value is just too low but the people were kicked out anyway without accepting a loan modification. Those homes are the ones being bulldozed by the tens of thousands across the country.
If any of this makes sense to you, then you work for a bank and you are getting paid very well and expect bonuses despite an economy that is driving toward an economic cliff. You want as much money as possible before catastrophe hits, which is driven almost solely by the financial crisis caused by the use of deriviaties, especially in the mortgage markets — false and faked derivatives that are every bit as fraudulent as the robo-signed, forged and fabricated documents used in foreclosure.
Se. Merkley has cleverly gone the route of securitization to accomplish it so that it might incite the banks to agree and see this as a way of getting out of millions of lawsuits and criminal investigations. But perhaps we give the banks too much credit.
Merkley refi plan could reach 75% of private underwater mortgages
by John Prior, http://www.housingwire.com
Roughly 75% of underwater mortgages securitized into private-label bonds could be eligible for a refinance under the new plan from Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., according to analysts at JPMorgan Chase ($35.05 -0.95%).
The proposal would allow a Rebuilding American Homeownership Trust buy underwater mortgages with revenue from government bonds. The trust would be assembled either in the Federal Housing Administration, the Federal Home Loan Banks system or the Federal Reserve.
Principal would be reduced, and the loans would be refinanced into FHA-backed mortgages. The trust would profit off the difference between the interest earned on the new loan and the cost of borrowing money through the bonds, according to the plan.
While Merkley said the program would target roughly 8 million borrowers, bank analysts anticipate less participation.
Roughly 1.2 million nonagency mortgages with loan-to-value ratios above 100% could benefit from the program, according to Chase analysts.
Borrowers would be able to refinance into either a 15-year 4% mortgage, a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at 5%. Borrowers could also split the new loan into a 30-year fixed on 95% of the property’s value and a “soft second” on the remaining balance, which the borrower wouldn’t have to pay on for five years.
More than three-fourths of these borrowers would choose to split the refinanced loan into a “soft second,” according to analysts.
“Of course there are a lot of details that would need to be ironed out. After all, this is effectively forming (or building upon) another GSE,” Chase analysts said. “While we can see clear benefits for both borrowers and investors, the devil is in the details.”
Banks with large amounts of underwater mortgages would be unlikely to participate. Refinances aren’t like modifications. They must be offered to all borrowers who qualify, and many banks and servicers have been reluctant to write down principal for delinquent underwater borrowers, let alone current ones.
Borrowers with severely underwater mortgages would likely be shut out. Servicers must reduce principal to at least 140% LTV. In the analysts’ example, a borrower with a $340,000 mortgage at 170 LTV (owes 70% more on the loan than the house is worth) would need $60,000 reduced. Along with an $18,000 risk-transfer fee, the lender would likely lose $78,000 on the deal, and the risk of default would still remain.
Treasury Department Secretary Timothy Geithner testified before the Senate Banking Committee last week that he thought the Merkley plan was a good one and would work with the senator on possibly producing a pilot program, maybe even using unspent Hardest Hit Funds.
Chase analysts estimated that more than 525,000 borrowers with private-label loans could refinance into full 30-year fixed mortgages and save an average $207 per month or $1.3 billion total every year.
Celia Chen, senior director at Moody’s Analytics, said the program would also help borrowers rebuild equity faster and significantly reduce the risk of default.
“Moreover, it would benefit the broader economy, as refinancing frees up cash for consumer spending and generates business for mortgage originators and servicers,” Chen said.
But other questions remain such as selecting a servicer for the RAH Trust loans. It also remains unclear if trusts could participate in the program.
“Clearly, bonds with the highest concentration of current borrowers will benefit the most if this program will reach nonagency trusts,” Chase analysts said. “We expect any pilot program to target bank loans first.”
Filed under: bubble, CDO, CORRUPTION, currency, Eviction, foreclosure, GTC | Honor, Investor, Mortgage, securities fraud | Tagged: accounting, appraisal fraud, DeMarco, Housing Wire, John Prior, Oregon, private label securitization, restitution, Senator Jeff Merkley, underwater homes'refinancing | 17 Comments »
