When President Obama announced the Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP, on February 18, 2009, in Mesa, Arizona, he promised it would assist 3 to 4 million homeowners to modify their loans to avoid foreclosure. Almost seven years later, less than 1 million have received ongoing assistance; nearly one in three re-defaulted after receiving inadequate modifications; and 6 million families lost their homes over the same time period.

Now the program is ending.

Tucked away on page 1,983 of the omnibus spending package, signed into law earlier this month, is the following language: “The Making Home Affordable initiative of the Secretary of the Treasury, as authorized under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 … shall terminate on December 31, 2016.”

This language closes out a series of measures initiated after the financial crisis to aid homeowners facing foreclosure, but mostly, it ends HAMP. Few noted its passage…

Between takes on the set of “Billions,” Damian Lewis is standing amid a sea of Bloomberg computer terminals singing Hall & Oates to no one in particular. “Because your kiss, your kiss, is on my list,” croons the actor, clad in jeans, Pumas and a gray buttondown.

But don’t let the breezy vibe fool you: In the drama, Lewis plays a cutthroat hedge fund manager and self-made billionaire named Bobby “Axe” Axelrod whose extraordinary track record arouses the suspicions of a combative U.S. attorney, Chuck Rhoades, played by Paul Giamatti. Rhoades’ righteous zeal is tempered somewhat by a giant conflict of interest at home: His wife, Wendy (Maggie Siff), just so happens to be the in-house shrink and performance coach at Axelrod’s firm, Axe Capital.

The series, premiering Jan. 17 on Showtime and co-created by New York Times financial columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin, arrives more than seven years after…

Three families facing evictions following tax foreclosures won a reprieve Wednesday when a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order halting the action for 14 days.

The order from U.S. District Judge Judith Levy comes amid a controversy involving several Wayne County suburbs that acquired tax-foreclosed properties from the county before its annual fall auction and resold them to developers.

Eighteen affected families filed suit Monday. Levy said the case raises “federal constitutional issues, violations of due process and equal protection,” but she only has jurisdiction in three cases whose owners hadn’t yet had eviction cases filed against them in local courts.

Another hearing is set Jan. 13.

Read on.

It’s bonus season, and while many in the junk bond market should expect coal in their stocking, the rest of Wall Street remains hopeful that Santa Claus remembers them this year. Given the Fed’s rate hike, though, more than a few financiers are losing faith.

It would help, perhaps, if Wall Street had a direct line to Santa Claus. Once upon a time, it did. For much of the 19th century, Santa Claus had a branch office at No. 12 Wall Street. This was the “Saint Nicholas Bank,” established in 1853 and capitalized at $500,000.

The origins of the Saint Nicholas Bank are a bit murky. Aside from the fact that it built a safe that Bankers’ Magazine described in 1854 as “the largest in the United States, if not the world,” the new institution attracted very little notice.

At this time, state-chartered banks in the United States issued their…

Home for Christmas: Suicide, Depression and the Holidays

The holidays can be very trying times for people who are facing foreclosure or are in litigation. Many of us fighting foreclosure have been victimized by a corrupt judicial system that refuses to comply with the law, and predatory attorneys who fail to uphold their promises; while taking every last cent we have. There is often no recourse with the courts and filing malpractice is often not financially feasible. Banks rely on their ability to influence the judiciary and evade discovery requests while outspending and exhausting the consumer. If the laws were followed, these cases would be honorably settled, people would heal, and everyone would go forward with their lives-but this isn’t how the banks and courts work. The feeling of powerlessness, hopelessness and futility often contribute to major depression and too often result in suicide when people recognize that everything they…

see https://www.wellsfargo.com/com/financing/real-estate/multi-family-capital/manufactured-home-communities/

See

• Conduit Loan Servicing (PDF)

Wells Fargo Article: “The thing most borrowers fail to realize about conduit loans is that once the loan has been securitized they are not working with a “lender” anymore.”

[Editor’s Note: And they never were dealing with a “lender.” Wells Fargo glosses over the fact that without the money and the loans going into the trust, the loan was not securitized, they destroyed the security, the Trust is nothing in the eyes of the law, and they made it virtually impossible for investors to know how to collect their money when the servicer chooses to stop making payments to the investors.

But what is clear is that in  virtually all cases Wells Fargo admits that as Master Servicer they are causing payments to be made at least 3-4 months after the borrower stops paying the servicer.]

see Wells Fargo Document – No Lender…