Financial Institutions

Robosigning 2.0: Coming to a Foreclosure Review Near You

02/26/12

Last October, I wrote a post entitled "Robosigning 2.0" that discussed some job ads for outsourced OCC foreclosure reviews.  I predicted based on the job ad qualifications that the foreclosure reviews would be nothing other than a whitewash.

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RDC App for Citibank?

02/26/12

Citibank is running commercials featuring the ability to deposit checks remotely via mobile device, a process known as remote deposit capture. Citi isn't the first retail bank to roll out RDC--USAA, for example, has been doing it for a while, but USAA has almost no branches, so checks have to be deposited remotely by their farflung depositor base.

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Watch them do, The standing still

02/23/12

My latest column for Dealbook looks at the competing narratives regarding Dodd-Frank's OLA in the banking and bankruptcy communities.

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Conferring

02/17/12

Today I'm off to the Wharton Restructuring and Turnaround Conference, which looks to be a great, high level discussion of all things chapter 11ish. But it is surely a sign of the times that the keynote speaker is a banking lawyer.

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Why No Investigation?

02/16/12

Here's a bombshell: the San Francisco City Assessor commissioned a serious audit of foreclosure documentation filed in the past few years. The audit examined 400 foreclosures.  It found problems with 85% of them, often multiple problems.

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Revisiting Lehman

02/14/12

For reasons that I don't quite understand, Krugman has gone all upside Taylor based on a two year old post from Economics of Contempt, and

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Recommended Reading

02/13/12

For those following financial reform:  Paul Volcker dismantles the only respectable (i.e., not obviously self interested) argument against the Volcker rule.

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Quote of the Day

02/09/12

In re Bank of America, N.A, 11-24503 MER, 2011 WL 2493056 (Bankr. D. Colo. June 21, 2011):

Since there is no allegation Bank of America is a railroad ...  the Court accepts Bank of America's representation that it is a “bank” for purposes of § 109(b)(2).

 

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The Servicing Settlement: Banks 1, Public 0

02/09/12

What are we to make of the servicing settlement announced today with much hoopla?  The short answer is not much.  The settlement is the large consumer fraud settlement ever, but it accomplishes remarkably little in terms of either alleviating the foreclosure crisis of holding to account those responsible for the housing bubble and subsequent foreclosure abuses.  As my Texas relatives say, it's “A

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Private Equity Works on Its Image Problem

01/31/12

Bloomberg out with an interesting story about how private equity firms are buying single family homes at foreclosure to rent out. It surprises me that there is real interest in what remains a relatively small scale, highly heterogeneous asset.

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