Maryland Consumer Group says Mortgage Relief may Bypass Poorer Homeowners

The Gaithersburg (MD) Gazette (11/12, Hyslop, 42K) reported that the Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition "is calling for more neighborhood-specific data on where banks distribute billions of dollars in mortgage relief under a national settlement that's meant to make up for the predatory lending and other mortgage abuses that contributed to a national wave of foreclosures." In a letter last week, the Maryland consumer advocacy group said "to help ensure fairness, Joseph A. Smith, the national settlement monitor, should require banks to provide ZIP code-level data on the relief they have offered to date and relief they offer in the future." Specifically, the group's Executive Director Marceline White wrote in the letter to Smith that servicers "appear to be failing to provide principal reduction loan modifications in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods," thereby undermining the objective of the $25 billion robo-signing settlement.