Earlier today Joseph A. Smith, Jr., Monitor of the National Mortgage Settlement issued his fifth and final report detailing progress by the five participating servicers regarding their consumer relief obligations under the Settlement through June 30. The monitor has verified the data provided by one servicer (Ally/ResCap) as fulfilling settlement consumer relief obligations, and is evaluating two others (Bank of America and Chase) for completion.
The servicers report that 643,726 borrowers have benefited from consumer relief totaling $51.33 billion, resulting in nearly $80,000 of assistance per borrower. Approximately half of assisted borrowers had some of their principal forgiven: Almost 100,000 borrowers had completed first lien principal reduction modifications and 225,000 completed 2nd lien modifications.
"While the data needs to be verified, it appears that the servicers have substantially exceeded the settlement's goals in providing real assistance to borrowers at risk of foreclosure, including the forgiveness of more than $25.9 billion of borrower mortgage principal," said Paul Leonard, CRL's California Director.
While consumer relief is at or near completion, the Monitor will continue to review the servicers' implementation of the settlement's servicing standards through 2015.
For more information: Ginna Green at (510) 379-5513 or ginna.green@responsiblelending.org.