Best of 2009: Frank Vows to Put an End to Fannie and Freddie Waivers
All day, we’re re-running our favorite blog posts of the last year. This post was originally published on Jan. 21, 2009. Elana Schor at Talking Points
Jul 31, 2020535.1K Shares10M Views
All day, we’re re-running our favorite blog posts of the last year. This post was originally published on Jan. 21, 2009.
Elana Schor at Talking Points Memo has a great inauguration interviewwith Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.). She asked him about TWI’s storylast week revealing that homeowners have to sign away their rights to sue lenders, if they want to get a loan modification under Fannie and Freddie’s streamlined loan modification program.
Frank said he had no idea the waivers were being required, and vowed to get rid of them — immediately.
Here’s the exchange:
“„TPM: The next question goes to mortgages, to shift a little bit. Countrywide executives testified before your committee last summer that they were requiring borrowers who had loan modifications to sign away part of their legal rights … a recent investigation found that Fannie and Freddie now make the same waiver requests of folks who are getting their loans modified. Were you aware of that? Do you think that’s a troubling trend?
“„FRANK: Yes, uh, it’s a very troubling trend. We were not aware of it. As a matter of fact, by the time that question was posed, Countrywide had been bought by Bank of America, and Bank of America has ended that practice. … I have friends who said ‘well, Bank of America’s too big, shouldn’t we stop them from buying Countrywide?’ … [M]y answer was, I would have been happy if Syria bought Countrywide, because it was one of the most irresponsible institutions out there. Bank of America has done a very good job … I did not know until you just told me that Fannie and Freddie were doing that and I can pretty much guarantee you that we will have put an end to that within a few days.
I’ll keep you posted on what happens with the waivers.
Hajra Shannon
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