Wednesday, November 14, 2007

The Bank You Know...

... may not be the bank you owe.
On Oct. 10, Judge Boyko, 53, ordered the lenders’ representative to file copies of loan assignments showing that the lender was indeed the owner of the note and mortgage on each property when the foreclosure was filed. But lawyers for Deutsche Bank supplied documents showing only an intent to convey the rights in the mortgages rather than proof of ownership as of the foreclosure date.

Saying that Deutsche Bank’s arguments of legal standing fell woefully short, the judge wrote: "The institutions seem to adopt the attitude that since they have been doing this for so long, unchallenged, this practice equates with legal compliance. Finally put to the test, their weak legal arguments compel the court to stop them at the gate."

* * * [T]he inability of Deutsche Bank, as trustee for the pools, to produce proof of ownership at the time of the foreclosures will fuel borrowers’ concerns that they are being forced out of their homes by entities that may not even hold the underlying loans.

Adds one mortgage securities specialist, "There is no industry repository for mortgage loans. I have heard of instances where the same loan is in two or three pools."

Yikes! If Wall Street investment banks don't even know that the mortgages they think they own are also being claimed by others, who's to say Wall Street arbitrageurs aren't double- and triple-counting even the ordinary investment assets they think they own?

No comments: