robo-signing scandal

Foreclosure activity picked up by 4% in June, and economic problems which include high unemployment and falling homes prices will drive it relentlessly higher. That's bad news for homeowners, but the ripple effect from foreclosures goes beyond their immediate problems, and it will get much worse.

Will homeowners see a penny of the reimbursements that the government has ordered 16 mortgage lenders to pay? Not likely, foreclosure victims and housing activists say, because the independent review ordered by regulators is too weak.

The Federal Reserve is finally admitting that not all the big banks are healthy: Bank of America won't get to pay increased dividends. But none of those financial giants should be allowed to, and a logical look at the reasons they say they want to dole out the cash makes it totally clear why.

The Fed's decision to allow big banks to pay sharply higher dividends makes no sense, and not just because the results of the so-called "stress tests" are secret. Based on facts that are public knowledge, the banks are actually insolvent, and in danger of sinking much further.

State attorneys general and federal regulators are rushing to settle the robo-signing foreclosure mess created by the banks and get the real estate market back on its feet. But their proposals don't fully address the one of the fundamental problems of the crisis: Who really owns all those homes?

HSBC announced late last month that it had put all of its U.S. foreclosures on hold to review their documents -- back in December. So why are its lawyers still pushing cases ahead? HSBC also says it doesn't robo-sign. So why does its annual report mention foreclosure document problems that sound so much like those caused by robo-signing?

HSBC got plenty of attention when it disclosed that it had suspended foreclosures in its annual report Monday. But its not the only bank whose annual report made for interesting reading. The risk disclosures in banks' annual reports shed some light on their attitudes toward the mortgage mess.

A Louisiana bankruptcy case involving a single foreclosure best illustrates the problems with the banks' outsourcing their mortgage default work to firms like LPS. The result of this money-saving maneuver by banks winds up costing everyone else dearly.

Foreclosures nationwide have exposed a swamp of fraudulent documents, but in many parts of Florida, courts have been letting banks ignore the law with impunity. Now, moves by Florida's Supreme Court and its state bar association may finally start cleaning up the fraud there by holding banks -- and lawyers -- accountable.

A New Jersey court has invalidated a foreclosure by insisting on a basic concept of due process -- that the bank must authenticate the documents it uses to make its case. But in the case of Wells Fargo v. Sandra A. Ford, there are more issues than just who owns the mortgage. She has fraud claims that go back to the very beginning.