Two similar pieces of legislation introduced last month in the House and Senate that would extend tax relief to homeowners who are underwater on their mortgage loans have been referred to committees and are waiting to be heard.

Congressman Tom Reed (R-New York) introduced the Mortgage Forgiveness Tax Relief Act of 2015 (H.R. 1002) on February 13, and that bill is now being heard in the House Committee on Ways and Means. Two weeks later, Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-Michigan) and Dean Heller (R-Nevada) introduced a similar bill (S. 608), which is currently in the Senate Banking Committee. Both bills would extend relief to homeowners on forgiven mortgage debt – the remaining mortgage balance when a borrower sells a home in a short sale to avoid foreclosure. The bills would allow homeowners to exclude the forgiven debt from federal income tax forms and not report it as…

Great reporting from Propublica!

by Justin Elliott
ProPublica, March 11, 2015, 4 a.m.

The Albany Times Union co-published a version of this story.

Previously undisclosed emails by a mortgage industry lobbyist doubling as a consultant for then Attorney General Andrew Cuomo show the lobbyist played a self-described “critical role” in one of Cuomo’s signature financial crisis investigations.

The emails from 2007 and 2008 detail how the lobbyist, longtime Cuomo confidantHoward Glaser, was involved in an investigation of mortgage industry players that included Glaser’s own clients.

In one email, Glaser touted his influence over a Cuomo deal that weakened rules to prevent misdeeds in the mortgage market. That deal, with mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, reflected Glaser’s “significant, critical, and…

Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller is trying to stop legislation that would eliminate a consumer protection known as the “settlement conference,” which is a homeowner’s final recourse before their home goes to foreclosure, according to anannouncement on Zoeller’s website.

So far, the proposal has not received sufficient discussion or debate in committee or floor sessions, according to Zoeller. He urged Indiana lawmakers to stop the proposal before it gets any further in order to keep the settlement conference intact as a consumer option to avoid foreclosure and help them stay in their homes.

“After the foreclosure crisis exposed the unethical practices of major mortgage servicers, my office worked extremely hard in our multistate investigation against five major banks to create new consumer protections for distressed homeowners,” Zoeller said. “The right created by law to a court-supervised settlement conference and face-to-face meeting between borrowers and lenders has helped thousands of…

U.S. District Judge Beth Freeman of the Northern District of California on Tuesday sided with lawyers for ServiceNow Inc. that four HP patents related to IT outsourcing cover abstract ideas which cannot be patented. Freeman’s decision rested heavily on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Alice v. CLS Bank, which set a high bar for the patentability of certain computer-implemented inventions.
UC-Hastings College of Law Professor Robin Feldman said she wasn’t surprised to see Alice wielded successfully against a Silicon Valley stalwart like HP. Established tech companies, as well as so-called patent trolls, have “applied for the type of broadly worded patents that were slapped down in Alice,” she said.
“Everyone has been hedging bets in recent years, but patent rules must apply to all,” Feldman said. “Innovation benefits from elimination of this style of patenting, and that is good for the Valley.”

via Citing ‘Alice,’ Judge Crushes Four HP…

BY BEN CARTER

“HB 470 is dead,” the text said. As an attorney who has represented hundreds of homeowners since the foreclosure crisis struck Kentucky in 2008, I breathed a sigh of relief.

House Bill 470, likely to be back in next legislative session in some version, would have removed the protection of judicial oversight from the majority of foreclosures.

When the bill was filed, consumers, consumer advocates (led by the Kentucky Equal Justice Center), and consumer attorneys across Kentucky mobilized to explain to legislators why removing judges from the foreclosure process would be so harmful to homeowners facing foreclosure.

So, I was surprised to see Ballard Cassady, president and CEO of the Kentucky Bankers Association, claim that “Kentucky bankers are the only ones concerned with protecting consumers.” This statement is as self-absorbed as HB 470 was self-serving for the mortgage servicing industry.

While KBA claims that it would allow…

Bank of America is one bank that is not one of the sharpest knives in the drawer when it comes to hiring the best employees. This takes the cake…

• STEVE KOVACH

I was on a business trip in Barcelona, Spain, for a week, so I was a bit behind on errands and other life stuff.

Like checking my mail.

On Sunday, I finally caught up and checked my mail for the first time in about six days.

The first letter I opened was this one from Bank of America, where I have checking and savings accounts:

The second letter I opened was another one from Bank of America apologizing for the first letter and assuring me I’m still alive.

Source: Business Insider

If I missed a scheduled payment to a bank, I would probably get hit with a late fee. Credit bureaus would receive a delinquency report. If I continued to miss the payment, debt collectors would harass me at all hours with phone calls. They might take me to court and get a judgment against me that enables them to garnish my wages or my taxrefunds. If the debt was secured — i.e., backed by a piece of collateral — the creditor could initiate proceedings to take that collateral away from me. In the case of a mortgage, that means repossessing my house in a foreclosureaction. They could take my car or strip me of all my other assets.

All of these consequences made the credit system work: Without them, people would be foolish to pay their debts. But if…

Remember back in the grim days of the mortgage foreclosure crisis? Back when consumers in trouble on their mortgages told horror stories about their inability to reach a live human being at their bank? Back when borrowers would have to fax forms to Wichita on one day and Cleveland the next?

Well, if a proposed piece of legislation working its way through the Indiana House of Representatives is passed as it stands, Hoosier borrowers might find themselves right back there.

Tucked inside Senate Bill 415, on Page 55 of a 104-page bill, is a paragraph repealing language from state code that created, back in 2009, the practice of mortgage settlement conferences for troubled borrowers facing foreclosure.

The change in language isn’t in a bill primarily about mortgages. Most of the bill deals with vacant and abandoned properties. It unanimously passed the Senate in mid-February and is currently in the House’s Local…