Bank of America, N.A. v. Casey, 517 B.R. 1 (D. Mass. 2015) –

A Chapter 7 trustee sought to avoid a mortgage using “strong-arm” powers based on a defect in the acknowledgement. The mortgagee contended that the defect was cured by a subsequently recorded affidavit. The bankruptcy court found in favor of the trustee, and the mortgagee appealed.

“Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.”

In her first appearance on Stephen Colbert’s “Late Show,” Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton took a firm stance against America’s big banks.

Clinton stopped by to chat about various aspects of her campaign, including her staunch support for a stable middle class and an increase to the minimum wage. She even let it be known what she and Bill like to binge-watch after 11-hour-long congressional hearings. (“The Good Wife,” “House of Cards” and “Madam Secretary.” Duh.)

When Colbert turned his questioning to Wall Street reform, he asked directly if Clinton were president, “and the banks are failing, do we let them fail?”

“Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes,” the former secretary of state responded. “Their shareholders have to know that yes, they will fail. And if they’re too big to fail, then under my plan and others that have been proposed they may have…

This time, the revolving door smacked Goldman Sachs on the backside.

Lloyd Blankfein’s bank is expected to pay a roughly $50 million fine and an ex-banker is expected to plead guilty to federal criminal charges that he took confidential documents from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, The Post has learned.

The civil penalties against Goldman are among the harshest ever levied by New York. The settlement is being ironed out between Goldman and the Department of Financial Services.

Read on.

39% of appraisals contained property quality or condition ratings that conflicted with previous ratings on the same property in the third quarter of 2015, according to a report from Platinum Data Solutions.

For the report, the company analyzed its database of over 300,000 appraisals that were evaluated by RealView, its appraisal quality technology, in Q3 2015.

This infographic shows what the company discovered.

(Source: Platinum Data Solutions)

“More than one in three appraisals contain inconsistencies in property ratings,” said Phil Huff, president and CEO of Platinum Data Solutions. “Causes aren’t easy to determine, so they need to be investigated. Doing this after Uniform Collateral Data Portal (UCDP) submission opens lenders up to numerous issues. Costly delays are just one of them.”

Read on.

Among the criticisms that Osceola County Clerk of Court Armando Ramirez has received for various policies and personnel moves since taking office in 2013, backing down from a legal challenge isn’t one of them.

Mark Twain once said, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”

Well, for legal and compliance officers representing mortgage servicers who often cite concentration risk as a justification for maintaining an expansive network of legal service providers, it “just ain’t so.”

Ironically, it is this focus on concentration risk that leads to slower case resolution and increased servicing costs overall.

Risk is inherent in all litigation. There are direct financial risks such as legal fees, court costs and other expenses incurred due to attorney action or inaction (e.g., sanctions, opposing party legal fees, refiling fees associated with lack of prosecution dismissals), along with indirect risks such as extended resolution timelines and reputational harm.

Mortgage servicers too often ignore the real risk of law firm failure. This risk, now a recurring reality in the default servicing world…