Mortgages: A major lender halts foreclosures
GMAC Mortgage, one of the nation’s largest mortgage lenders, has temporarily halted foreclosure proceedings in 23 states, said Denise Pellegrini in Bloomberg.com. The company, a unit of Ally Bank, told its brokers to halt evictions, lockouts, and cash-for-key transactions while it takes what it calls “corrective action” on some foreclosures—primarily in the East and Midwest, where state courts are more actively involved in procedures. Ally Bank, formerly known as GMAC, has received more than $17 billion in bailouts from the federal government, which owns 56.3 percent of the company.
It’s unclear what prompted Ally to take such action, which it announced last week in an internal memo marked “urgent,” said Ariana Cha in The Washington Post. Some GMAC Mortgage brokers speculated that Ally may have come under federal pressure to ease up on foreclosures. But there may be another explanation. Last week a Florida court found that another mortgage lender committed fraud when it tried to foreclose on a home to which it didn’t have clear title. GMAC Mortgage might be using the moratorium to clean up its paperwork in order to avoid similarly embarrassing outcomes.
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Pharmaceuticals: Chief of troubled J&J unit to retire
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Feuds: Hewlett-Packard settles with Hurd
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