Foreclosure-Gate: 50 State AG's Reject Idea of Global Settlement

11-25-2010 • NakedCapitalism.com/

One attorney who has good contacts with major mortgage investors commented by e-mail: Whenever I see indications, particularly comments off the record by “officials”, that a settlement might be near, I suspect it is Michael Barr that is behind it. Treasury desperately wants this issue to go away. Unfortunately, they haven’t suggested any solution that would work. While there it no way to be certain that Treasury is behind this press meme of “quick settlement” when the AGs have repeatedly made clear that is not in the cards, it does not seem terribly likely that investors are champing at the bit. The last bit of intelligence from Bloomberg is that in addition to their combined effort, some AGs are also pursuing separate initiatives. For instance, Illinois’ Lisa Madigan has made information requests of 26 mortgage companies. Bloomberg also reported separately that Maine has successfully pressured Bank of America and GMAC into suspending foreclosure. The fact that this investigation is moving at a measured pace is a good sign. Only a cosmetic effort could be wound up quickly.