September 29, 2010: Employees in a lender’s foreclosure operations unit may have signed affidavits in foreclosure cases without personally reviewing the documents, the same issue that has recently plagued Ally Financial, according to a memo obtained by HousingWire.
According to the memo, Chase has begun to re-examine documents it has filed in current foreclosure proceedings to verify the documents were reviewed as required by the courts.
Thomas Kelly, a spokesman for the bank, confirmed information contained in the memo.
“It has come to our attention that in some cases employees in our mortgage foreclosure operations may have signed affidavits about loan documents on the basis of file reviews done by other personnel – without the signer personally having reviewed those loan files,” Kelly said.
Last week, Ally Financial, formerly GMAC Mortgage, admitted employees signed foreclosure affidavits in 23 states without knowledge of the documents or a notary present, a process known as “robo-signing.”
As a result of its recent foreclosure problems, Ally/GMAC is facing a possible downgrade to its servicer rating and billions of dollars in affected residential mortgage-backed securities, as well as investigations from several attorneys general offices.
