California Attorney General's Office Pulls Out of Settlement with Banks

New America Media, News Report, Zaineb Mohammed and Ngoc Nguyen, Posted: Oct 01, 2011

SAN FRANCISCO -- California Attorney General Kamala Harris announced yesterday that her office is pulling out of a pending 50-state settlement with banks over wrongful foreclosures.

In a letter to Associate U.S. Attorney General Thomas Perrelli and Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, Harris said the agreement would allow “too few…homeowners to stay in their homes” and shield banks from further investigations.

“After much consideration, I have concluded that this is not the deal California homeowners have been looking for,” she wrote in the letter.

Settlement negotiations between the 50 attorneys general and the nation’s five largest banks -- Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Co., Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Ally Financial, commenced last fall. Beginning over allegations of robo-signing, or the practice of bank employees notarizing or signing sworn documents without verifying or understanding them, they later expanded to include other abuses related to mortgage servicing and foreclosure practices.

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