Nearly a half-dozen mortgage servicers scored high in an evaluation of how they are meeting the terms of the servicer settlement. But one didn’t.
Tests are conducted periodically to determine how home loan servicers that were part of the $25 billion servicer settlement reached in 2012 are complying with the terms of the agreement.
Five of the servicers — Bank of America, N.A.; CitiMortgage Inc.; J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, N.A.; Ocwen Loan Servicing LLC; and Wells Fargo & Co.-Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., passed all of the tests with flying colors for the period from July 1, 2013, to Dec. 31, 2013.
“My colleagues and I conducted a rigorous testing process to review five servicers’ compliance with the national mortgage settlement’s original 29 metrics for the third and fourth quarters of 2013,” Joseph A. Smith Jr., monitor of the settlement, said in a progress report issued Wednesday. “I’m pleased to report that these servicers passed all tests during this reporting period.”
But one servicer, Green Tree Servicing LLC, fell short on eight of the metrics.
The report on Green Tree covered just the period from Oct. 1, 2013, through Dec. 31, 2013 — the first quarter that Green Tree was tested since acquiring loans from entities related to bankrupt Residential Capital LLC.
The Walter Investment Management Corp.-subsidiary’s progress report, which was filed in federal court in the nation’s capitol, indicated that it failed in the categories of pre-foreclosure initiation, pre-foreclosure initiation notifications and motion for relief from stay affidavits.
It also scored an F for proof of claim, reconciliation of certain waived fees and third-party vendor management.
In addition, Green Tree was deficient with complaint response timeliness and loan modifications document collection timeline compliance.
“These results show that Green Tree must make significant changes to improve its practices and comply with the settlement,” Smith stated.
Smith noted that while he is encouraged by the overall results for all of the servicers reviewed, more work needs to be done to ensure borrowers are being treated fairly.
He said that servicers began being tested on four new metrics issued in October that focus on the loan modification process, single point of contact and billing accuracy.
