"A Tailored Response" on Foreclosures

[don]

Traditional tailoring is called bespoke tailoring in the United Kingdom, where the heart of the trade is in London's Savile Row, and custom tailoring in the United States and Hong Kong. This is unlike made to measure which uses pre existing patterns.



A bespoke garment or suit is completely original and unique to each customer.


Famous fictional tailors include the tailor in The Emperor's New Clothes


(from Wikipedia)

Government Steps Lightly Into Foreclosure Controversy



WASHINGTON—The top regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac said Friday that government officials aimed to develop a tailored response to the recent foreclosure-documentation controversy that wouldn't have an adverse impact on the fragile housing market.

The comments came the same day Bank of America Corp. said it was temporarily going to freeze foreclosure sales across the country as it reviewed the process used by mortgage servicers to handle foreclosures. Several other lenders had agreed to halt foreclosure sales in certain states, but Bank of America's announcement was the most sweeping.

It is unclear if other large mortgage servicers will follow suit, but several people familiar with the matter have said banks are facing growing pressure from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to address deficiencies in their mortgage servicing operations. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were created by Congress to provide liquidity and stability to the housing market. The companies were taken over by the government in 2008 and have been run under a conservatorship by the Federal Housing Finance Agency since that time.
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FHFA acting director Edward DeMarco wouldn't comment specifically on the Bank of America decision. But he said his agency was working with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to determine the scope of the documentation issue and come up with targeted ways to address the matter. Banks and regulators are facing growing political pressure to act quickly, with multiple politicians and state attorneys general insisting in recent days on a broad freeze of foreclosures until the matter is resolved.

"I understand there's a lot of concern," Mr. DeMarco said. "Concern is understandable. We're not diminishing the concern. We are trying to be quick but measured in the approach and the response taken. We're concerned about the whole housing market and we're concerned about what this means for taxpayers and other market participants."

He said he didn't want to "rush into things that create further unintended consequences."

Mr. DeMarco said he hasn't seen any evidence that people had lost their homes to foreclosure during this process who had otherwise made their monthly payments or had made "full attempts to satisfy and meet the terms of some foreclosure-alternative program."

"I don't think that's what we're looking at here, from what we know to date," he said.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac carry enormous influence over the housing market. They buy mortgages from banks and other originators, so banks are often dependent on these companies for liquidity to originate loans. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac enter into servicing agreements with scores of companies to collect payments and work with homeowners, and its these contracts that are central to the companies' involvement in the current issue.

"From where I sit, I'm concerned the country's housing finance system remains fragile, and it's my intention to work through this subject in a manner that is fair to households with delinquent mortgages but is also fair to servicers, to mortgage investors, and most of all is in the best interest of the taxpayers and the housing market," he said.

The White House is working on a plan to overhaul the housing finance system, and Congress is expected to tackle the issue early next year. Democrats and Republicans have said Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shouldn't be allowed to continue operating in their current form, but there are competing proposals for how to restructure the system.

The government has spent billions of dollars in the last two year to keep Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac operational.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...528292608.html

[Kadriana]

Re: "A Tailored Response" on Foreclosures

Government Steps Lightly Into Foreclosure Controversy



Mr. DeMarco said he hasn't seen any evidence that people had lost their homes to foreclosure during this process who had otherwise made their monthly payments or had made "full attempts to satisfy and meet the terms of some foreclosure-alternative program."

"I don't think that's what we're looking at here, from what we know to date," he said.



http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...528292608.html

I am really starting to wonder about this part. I've been reading about the HAMP program and it seems like a lot of people were following instructions of a bank representative and being led on that their loan would be modified only to be sent a foreclosure notice in the mail.