S&P Asks for Assurance on Foreclosure Practices

Standard & Poor’s is finally stepping in to the current foreclosure controversy. The ratings agency has set a deadline for mortgage servicers to verify and justify their respective foreclosure proceedings to make sure they are in line with regulations. The company said any mortgage servicer that would fail to comply on or before the deadline would incur downgraded ratings.

Major mortgage providers like Bank of America, Ally Financial, and JP Morgan Chase have recently suspended their foreclosure activities after issues rose about their so-called ‘robo-signing’ practices.

Another ratings provider, Moody’s Investors Service, immediately put its ratings on the banks up for review. Standard & Poor’s in October said it would keep on monitoring reviews, but would not modify or downgrade its ratings for the mortgage providers. Now, it threatens to lower ratings of the lenders. S&P said mortgage servicers have until the end of March to furnish it with necessary documentations.

The lenders are asked to provide written and formal verifications from independent reviewers about the legality and accuracy of their foreclosure affidavits. At the same time, the mortgage servicers must identify specific processes workflows and even organizational deficiencies. They should provide information about any extent of any possible documentation deficiency.

S&P is also requiring written verifications about related changes to banks’ internal policies. Procedural changes should be carefully and clearly defined and described. The ratings provider said inconsistencies in requirements would be subjected to further review. It would also look at all efforts of the banks to resolve or address issues. S&P said it would revise its outlooks on banks as it deems appropriate after the end of the first quarter.

The company was quick to remind everyone that the procedure applies to all ranked servicers. It clarified that such information are required not just from the mortgage servicers that are on a credit watch list. It reiterated that it would not make any ranking action based merely on announcements of any bank that it would review its own foreclosure processes.

S&P maintains that its credit ratings are accurate and are reflecting real potentials of companies. This action is expected to put more pressure on mortgage banks to be more open about their foreclosure practices.

For more information, visit ForeclosureConnections.com.