Joseph Smith, the monitor of the National Mortgage Settlement has reported that the five major banks have officially fulfilled the consumer relief obligations of the National Mortgage Settlement. He further reported that the banks have provided more than $50 billion of gross relief, which allegedly equates to more than $20 billion in credited relief.
Smith filed final crediting reports with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia tfor Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Citi, and Wells Fargo, which detailed how these servicers gave consumer relief.
Smith’s office found that more than 600,000 families received some form of relief, which was broken into 17% refinancing assistance, 37% first lien principal forgiveness, 15% second lien principal forgiveness and 31% other relief.
In total, Bank of America, Chase, Citi, Wells Fargo and ResCap provided $8.6 billion, $4.2 billion, $1.8 billion, $4.3 billion and $200 million, respectively, in total relief obligations.
Smith said that they will continue to monitor the servicers and are only about halfway through the settlement process. The office will continue to test the servicers’ compliance with the settlement’s servicing rules.
The banks had major incentives to provide relief early, which they have complied with. It remains to be seen whether the banks will be able to meet the stringent servicing requirements, which plagued them during the financial crisis.