Decoding the GOP Argument Against Punishing Banks for Their Mortgage Crimes

Now that the mortgage mess settlement proposal has been made public, with its very basic demands that mortgage servicers follow the law and competently service mortgages, the push-back has begun. Cheynne Hopkins and Rob Blackwell of American Banker report on the first major effort by the banks' allies to weaken the proposal.

I use "the banks" and "mortgage servicers" interchangeably because according to a list of the ten biggest mortgage servicers compiled by Reuters last fall, the top five are: 1. Bank of America (BAC), 2. Wells Fargo (WFC), 3. JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM), 4. Citigroup (C) and 5. GMAC/Ally Financial. Not coincidentally, TERA Gold those banks were Nos. 5 through 9 on the list of recipients of federal bailout money, according to Pro Publica, for a total of $160 billion of your tax dollars. It's irrelevant that all but the $16 billion given to GMAC/Ally has been paid back. What matters is that when the big banks needed help, the taxpayers had their back.

So who are the banks' allies? In the Senate, their leader is Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), RIFT Platinum who also lead the opposition to the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In the House of Representatives, the banks' allies are the Republican leadership, including Financial Services Committee Chairman Spencer "Washington and the regulators are there to serve the banks" Bachus (R-Ala.), and Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.).

Among Rep. Garrett's largest campaign contributors recently and throughout his career have been Bank of America and the debt collector trade association ACA International. Incidentally, Garrett has taken large campaign contributions from a hedge fund -- and now chairs the subcommittee overseeing hedge funds. rift gold Both Bachus and Garrett were also fierce opponents of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Campaign cash aside, why do these people oppose forcing mortgage servicers to do things like "ensure accuracy and timely updating of borrower's account information, RIFT Platinum including posting of payments and imposition of fees" and making sure that those fees are "bona fide, reasonable in amount, and disclosed in detail to the borrower"?

I mean, can you imagine if your bank handled your checking account this way, failing to credit your deposits and charging you outrageous fees without telling you about them? You'd change banks in a heartbeat. Rift Gold But therein lies the rub: Borrowers aren't the mortgage servicers' customers, and borrowers have no way to change servicers.