Oct. 21 (Bloomberg) -- The biggest U.S. mortgage lenders and servicers say theyâre putting the foreclosure mess behind them, and that it never was a major problem. The reality is these companies are so big and unmanageable, the people in charge of running them have no way to know if that is true. One thing that remains unknowable is how many flawed home- mortgage records and foreclosure proceedings are out there waiting to be unearthed. Dozens of federal and state agencies are investigating. Itâs anyoneâs guess what they might turn up. The industryâs self-exonerations keep pouring out anyway. âWe believe the integrity of Citiâs foreclosure process is sound,â Citigroupâs chief financial officer, John Gerspach, said Oct. 18 on a conference call with investors. While Citigroup uses outside lawyers to prepare foreclosure documents, he said, âeach package is reviewed by a Citi employee, who verifies the information and signs the foreclosure affidavit in the presence of a notary.â Thatâs not what happened in the case of a Port Charlotte, Florida, husband and wife, Peter and Cheryl Hesser. Citigroup sued the Hessers in January 2008, seeking to foreclose on their home mortgage. In February 2009 the bank filed a motion for summary judgment in the case. The affidavit it filed in support of that motion wasnât signed by a Citigroup employee, however. http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aFgHqCb5UTAY
Again this is just another non event for the banks, 10 years ago this would have put extreme pain on the banks and markets, this news is nothing when being compared to the overall credit crisis these banks were in just a year ago. This will be fixed with some newly printed monopoly money.