Title:
'Put-Backs,' 'Robo-Signers' Put New Pressure on US
Housing Market
Description: This is
a VOA Special English Economics Report.
See text below
Text:
Since January, lenders have seized or begun the
process to seize about two million American homes.
In September alone, banks and other financial
companies reclaimed over one hundred thousand
properties because of unpaid loans. That was the
most yet since the housing collapse that led to the
recent recession. Now, efforts to speed a housing
recovery have hit new problems. These include
questions about whether banks have acted unlawfully
in reclaiming some homes. Reports of abuses have
grown with talk lately of "robo-signers." These are
employees who sign foreclosure forms without taking
the required legal steps or even reading the
paperwork. They simply act like robots. In some
cases, documents may have been falsified. In
October, the top law enforcement officials in all
fifty states announced an investigation of big
servicers of home loans. Servicers receive the
payments from borrowers and might also hold the
loans. Among the targets of the attorney-general
investigations are Bank of America, J.P. Morgan
Chase and Ally Financial. An Ally employee admitted
robo-signing thousands of foreclosures each
month.The Obama administration has launched its own
investigation. But the administration has not
supported the idea of a temporary suspension of all
foreclosures. Officials say this could endanger the
slow economic recovery. Twenty-three states require
a court to approve a foreclosure. Several banks have
suspended foreclosures in those states temporarily
to review their operations. Bank of America, the
nation's largest bank, now believes it can restart
home repossessions in those states.Robo-signers are
not the only concern right now. "Put-backs" have
joined the list of bank worries. In a "put-back,"
investors try to force a bank to take back a bad
loan. In October, Bank of America said it received a
letter from investors holding almost fifty billion
dollars in mortgage-backed securities. These are
bonds based on large numbers of individual loans.
The investors want the bank to buy back any
improperly processed loans included in those
securities. Demands on banks for put-backs could
grow. And there are even questions about who really
owns those bad loans. For VOA Special English, I'm
Alex Villarreal.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
