W.Va. part of $550M SunTrust mortgage settlement

CHARLESTON — Attorney General Patrick Morrisey has announced a $550 million joint state-federal settlement with mortgage lender and servicer SunTrust Mortgage Inc. to address mortgage origination, servicing, and foreclosure abuses.

The three-year settlement provides direct payments to West Virginia borrowers for past foreclosure abuses, loan modifications and other relief for borrowers in need of assistance, tough new mortgage servicing standards, and grants oversight authority to an independent monitor.

“This agreement will provide more than 100 West Virginians who borrowed from SunTrust with loan modifications,” Morrisey said in a statement. “Additionally, some loans that were foreclosed upon may be eligible for payments for past abuses.”

West Virginia is joining 48 other states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in the settlement.

Morrisey said the SunTrust agreement closely mirrors the National Mortgage Settlement reached in February 2012 between the federal government, 49 states and the nation’s five largest national mortgage servicers. That agreement has provided consumers nationwide with more than $50 billion in direct relief, created tough new servicing standards, and implemented independent oversight.

“Like the 2012 settlement, the SunTrust settlement holds a major mortgage servicer accountable for its unacceptable past practices, and provides direct relief to West Virginia borrowers,” Morrisey said. “And SunTrust must treat its borrowers much more fairly because of the settlement’s tough servicing standards.”

The agreement requires SunTrust to provide certain West Virginia borrowers with loan modifications or other relief. The modifications, which SunTrust will choose through an extensive list of options, include principal reductions and refinancing for underwater mortgages. SunTrust will decide how many loans and which loans to modify, but must meet certain minimum targets. Because SunTrust receives only partial settlement credit for many types of loan modifications, the settlement will provide relief to borrowers that will exceed the overall minimum amount.

Information about the loan modification process will be released at a later date. SunTrust borrowers who may have settlement-related questions, including whether they may qualify for certain forms of relief, may call 800-634-7928 or go online at www.SunTrustMortgage.com.

Approximately 184 eligible West Virginia borrowers whose loans were serviced by SunTrust and who lost their home to foreclosure between 2008 and 2013 and encountered servicing abuse will be eligible for a payment from the national $40 million fund for payments to borrowers. The borrower payment amount will depend on how many borrowers file claims.

Eligible borrowers will be contacted about how to qualify for payments.

Morrisey said the settlement requires SunTrust to substantially change how it services mortgage loans, handles foreclosures, and ensures the accuracy of information provided in federal bankruptcy court.

The terms will prevent past foreclosure abuses, such as robo-signing, improper documentation and lost paperwork.

The settlement creates dozens of new consumer protections and standards, including:

• Making foreclosure a last resort by first requiring SunTrust to evaluate homeowners for other loss mitigation options;

• Restricting foreclosure while the homeowner is being considered for a loan modification;

• New procedures and timelines for reviewing loan modification applications;

• Giving homeowners the right to appeal denials;

• Requiring a single point of contact for borrowers seeking information about their loans and maintaining adequate staff to handle calls.

The settlement also states that the National Mortgage Settlement’s independent monitor, Joseph A. Smith Jr., will oversee SunTrust agreement compliance. Smith served as the North Carolina Commissioner of Banks from 2002 until 2012, and is also the former Chairman of the Conference of State Banks Supervisors.

Smith will oversee implementation of the servicing standards required by the agreement; impose penalties of up to $1 million per violation (or up to $5 million for certain repeat violations); and issue regular public reports that identify any quarter in which a servicer fell short of the standards imposed in the settlement.

“This agreement resolves potential violations of civil law based on SunTrust’s deficient mortgage loan origination and servicing activities,” Morrisey said. “The agreement does not prevent state or federal authorities from pursuing criminal enforcement actions related to this or other conduct by SunTrust, or from punishing wrongful securitization conduct that is the focus of the Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Working Group. The agreement also does not prevent any action by individual borrowers who wish to bring their own lawsuits.”

The agreement will be filed as a consent judgment in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.