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MERS Exits Stage Left, Tells Members Not To Foreclose In MERS' Name
After the MERS Valentine's Day Massacre, previously reported on Zero Hedge, where Judge Robert Grossman found that MERS has no right to transfer mortgages, the company appears to have proceeded with the logical next step: professional Harakiri. In an announcement sent out to all MERS Members, the company stated that according to a proposed amendment to Membership Rule 8, it will require "members not to foreclose in MERS' name." MERS is seeking comments in a 90-day period, but since this is a directive driven from external judicial decision(s), it is unlikely that MERS members' opinions will matter at all. Basically MERS may have just exited the US mortgage scene, stage left, for good.
Highlights from the release:
MERS is providing the following guidance to all Members to strengthen business practices, and minimize reputation, legal and compliance risk to MERS and its Members. In recent months legal challenges have arisen regarding alleged inadequacies and improprieties in the foreclosure process including allegations of insufficient or incorrect supporting documentation and challenges to the legal capacity of parties’ right to foreclose. MERS is committed to reevaluate and strengthen its systems and procedures to protect against these types of legal challenges. Consistent with this approach we have enhanced the Corporate Resolution Management System (CRMS) and instituted related policies and procedures designed to strengthen MERS’ business practices and limit compliance risks. To comply with this guidance, MERS Members should implement the following practices, effective immediately.
MERS is planning to shortly announce a proposed amendment to Membership Rule 8. The proposed amendment will require Members to not foreclose in MERS’ name. Consistent with the Membership Rules there will be a 90-day comment period on the proposed Rule. During this period we request that Members do not commence foreclosures in MERS’ name. If a Member determines that it will commence a foreclosure in MERS’ name during this 90-day period, two weeks advance notice must be given to MERS to permit verification of the appointment and current status of the Certifying Officer proposed to participate in the foreclosure. No foreclosure may be processed in MERS’ name without first obtaining this verification. We encourage Members to bring foreclosures only in the name of the holder of the note, in the name of the trustee or the servicer of record acting on behalf of the trustee.
As to whether this will actually impact a housing business whose every component is in regulatory and legal flux and limbo, and more specifically, the share prices of WFC and BAC, please direct your queries to Liberty 44, c/o Central Market Planning Bureau.
Full MERS statement.
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We can only hope JPM, GS, BoA and the FED follow suit. FTB
Could hurl a wrench or two into the gears of the housing market.
In addition to the shattered ball bearings, misaligned casings, and worn out lubricants already gumming up the works.
So if MERS is determined to not have the legal authority to transfer the notes and now MERS admittingly is saying they can longer bring the foreclosure action, what is their function going forward??
I thought MERS’s position was that it can be both the mortgagee and an agent of the mortgagee. If MER's position now is that it cannot act in that role wouldn't that make the transfers void and the note not valid? I'm confused.
It sounds as if the comment period will be a CYA proposal fest. We can only assume that the legislative branch steps in and rescues the banks at this point.
Let's not forget WFC in there as well.
Could anyone point me to why MERS was cutoff because of the non-documentation of mortgage transfers, but Fannie and Freddie don't seem to be getting any heat? Fannie and Freddie are following the same footsteps as MERS and NOT documenting mortgage transfers or assignees on the notes.
We bailed them out with money, why not with falsified title documents behind which stands "the full faith and credit of the US Government?"
It's alll paper anyway.
So...I guess it's rally time for equities, especially the financials then? Bad news is now good news, if my understanding is correct, and this is some pretty bad news for any institution threatened with mass putbacks from RMBS holding clients.
Exactly, bad news in MBS is good news for bonds, equities, and commodities.
In the sense that it guarantees QE4EVA then yes, I suppose it is. Shame about having to kill off the value of the dollar along the way, but I guess it's a small price to pay for keeping Wall St. bonuses flowing and ensuring that nobody is ever held accountable for the biggest fraud in mankind's history.
You will know the end is near when the Wall St bonuses are paid in PMs.
It would not surprise me at all to find that some of them already are, or that the recipients of cash bonuses are converting some of their payouts into metals.
I know of one recently retired hedge fund manager in London (A huge operation in terms of AUM, but I won't mention names) who's funds have nothing to do with PM's, but who personally is stacking much of his vast wealth into land and Gold.
This is very interesting...so whats next....its a free for all for title....What are the title insurance companies doing...they are privately held I think....this has to put them out of business....lawyers will eat this up...you don´t buy a home now..you sue for one...LOL
Not yet...
We encourage Members to bring foreclosures only in the name of the holder of the note, in the name of the trustee or the servicer of record acting on behalf of the trustee …
Confused? I am. I don't think anyone has quite figured out what's ok and what's not.
Banks need to start naming the ENTIRE chain of ownership as plaintiffs or seek declaratory relief to determine the holder prior to initiating foreclosure... the defaulting landowner would be prohibited from denying the court's determination... Someone out there really is the true holder... [of course, this will open up ancillary cans of worms, but the plaintiffs are always able to make an agreement amongst themselves as to how to settle the transactions].
Somehow they thought it would just be better to lie to the court? lol... assclowns.
"only in the name of the holder of the note"
Where's the f-ing note, that is the question.
hot potato!
MERS feels slimey like DTCC. Same obfuscation, sleight of hand mumbodabra.
Feels more and more like this whole mess (all of it, the BIG mess) is just meant to blow up. No way they can sort through it in a 100 years.
Good luck everyone. Going to need it.
ORI
http://aadivaahan.wordpress.com/2011/02/16/truth-about-america-truth-about-us/
Did not find one mention of this issue (the judgement) in the MSM. This, imho, is the biggest news of the year, not Egypt, not Yemen or Iran. Not even the Irish banks printing their own Euros (though that is a good one, also under or unreported).
This will totally fuck the entire housing market but I mean really, how important is the housing market? It's not like any major financial institutions actually use property as collateral for anything anyway. I am also sure that most people don't have most of their "wealth" tied up in real estate... no, I can see why no one thinks this is news.
I think we need to change from BTFD to JGYMTTF (Just Give Your Money To The Fed) because... well that is what is happening.
I must agree. The fifth column has been folded into the government propaganda machine, as the media obviously represents interests which are not ours.
There are only 3 types of information: misinformation, disinformation, and the truth. Omission of the truth is a form of deceit. This is HUGE news which will affect us for decades. As for me, I'm looking for another house...
In them thar hills.
Don't worry, Wells Fargo. No one will ever know this is a material event. HAHAHAHA
Crash Wells Fargo; start with a QWR:
http://www.foreclosurehamlet.org/forum/attachment/download?id=4164911%3A...
Dear MERS,
Since corporations are people now, go straight to jail.
Do not pass Go, do not collect $200.
You have defrauded local governments of billions of dollars and shit all over the homeowning public.
lol Pfizer has been found guilty of well over three felonies...
on Thu, 02/17/2011 - 08:28
#969646
"Since corporations are people now, go straight to jail."
since corporations are people now maybe they should be taxed at individual rates............
they are people when it helps them. they are immortal, government and worker controlling faceless and nearly nameless and placeless super-computing soulless robots when it helps them. no wait, they're always soulless.
Brilliant... +111111
PeeWee, there never was any homeowning public. Not in recent history.
The corporation owns it all. Homeowning public is paying rentgage to occupy.
That is the truth.
ORI
http://aadivaahan.wordpress.com/2011/02/16/truth-about-america-truth-about-us/
And if they kill somebody, put them to death.
to me this negates any mortgage out there that these guys had...????? No paper..no mortgage..
Residential mortgage business = crap yet we have forgotten about the commercial side.
http://www.emii.com/Articles/2770343/Banking--Brokerage/Banking--Brokerage-Articles/CMBS-Loan-Delinquencies-Top-9Pc.aspx
And from one trash can into another trash can-you just can not make this shit up-garbage companies making garbage companies-landfill is full.
http://cmegroup.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=3107&pagetemplate=article
Hey ok man. Do like they are doing in Florida and change the locks and get yourself a free house.
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2011/feb/16/PMENEWSO1-uninvited-guests/
Just more signs of a system reset. know your neighbors, your survival could depend on it.
Florida is scumbag/scam artist central. scambags?
Pretty typical of the modern business model. Keep stealing, just change the name. Not long before total system reset now. Just waiting for food prices to go parabolic then it is game over.
So...I'm reading this "release" and I cannot lose the visual of a Treehouse and a bunch of kids putting it together for the KrazyClub's minutes...
I guess they are trying to hit the eject button and dissolve since you can't sue a ghost -- but you can sue a too big to fail -- adios MERS don't let the door hit ya, where the Good Lord SPLIT ya!
Na, they won't dissolve the thing... they'll have to keep it open so everyone can ragdoll it like a woman on the dancefloor in night at roxbury. [if dissolved, you sue the principals/members]. They'll keep it open, eat claims, and then file bk... hopefully naming all creditors properly :)... even then, it should probably stay open just as a meat shield for plaintiffs attorneys.
Just a thought, but if people check with the register of deeds and find that the transfer of deed has not been transfered correctly. Why not send mortgage holder a registered letter informing them that because of failure to process the laon correctly you are putting mortgage payments into escrow account in another bank until the send confirmation of carrying out closing procecdures correctly?
TD deserves praise for being perhaps the first Westerner in fifty years to spell "harakiri" correctly.
But what we need is to use Battokiri on the TBTF bank.
Surely this is material information for all the fucking banks. They will all have to put out press releases. Today, right?
For Banks, Bernanke is waiting on the wings with a bunch of suckers (tax-payers) to transfer wealth. So Banks need not worry.
Heres a comment for MERS and all it's members.
Fuck off.
Hey, fuck the banks. I'm thinking that since BofA started FC proceedings a year ago and actually doesn't have standing because MERS does, or did, or might, since the assignment was backdated to November 8, 2008, notarized on March 21, 2010 and recorded in the county clerk's office on April 12, but, but, but, BofA served me and my co-heirs on March 28, 2010, so they really didn't have standing, did they?
Also, since here in NY, lawyers have to verify the accuracy and truthfulness of all documents (and they obviously can't), and since BofA just opened up a new division to deal with "bad" loans, I give my case about a 40% shot of just plain getting lost, and a 50% shot of it falling under any one of maybe two or three internal thresholds, since their net on this would be about $40,000 on an $80,000 loan (can't show a loss, can we?), and about a 90% chance of me winning any court battle should it come to that, I invoke my right to live free or die?
I'm confused. Who is MERS and why is their name on my dead father's mortgage? And who has the note?
You might live free for a while maybe longer, but probably wont inherit the house.
look into securitized transaction law. try this approach. the revised article 9 of UCC is so complex, have the lender prove "perfection".
lack of perfection = non securitized = non collaterilized = unsecured loan.
= who cares about MERS.
Wait, wait, wait. They are not to foreclose in MERS's name, but what happens with all the undocumented lien transfers? Since they were all done thru MERS, on who's name are they going to foreclose?
Oh wait, undocummented. Is all good. Never mind.
The banks are anxious to make bailouts law by hijacking Fannie and Freddie's GSE role. They are proposingthat the govermwent should continue subsidising mortgage loans for them just as was/is done with the GSEs.
All proposals on the board contain backup guarantees by the goverment with tax payor's money. They have truly hijacked capitalism in true goverment oligarchial fashion, There claims that it is necessary are bogus. Both the banks and the goverment only consider it necessary because they are too frightened to let house prices drop as they should. Their claims that that investors would not buy mortgage bonds wirthout the goverment backing are bogus. If investors saw that the RE values were good they would invest.
They will use this MER's "crisis" to push their agenda foward. Our choices are limited: Do we want to get kicked in the face or balls?
Homeowners are the real losers in this decision.
Without a mers type structure to make it easy to buy and sell mortgages it will lower liquidity and raise costs of financing. We need a way to non fraudulantly commoditize mortgages to maximize liquidity and lower costs of finance.
Commoditizing mortgages was what got us into trouble in the first place.
Now who will foreclose? Servicers can't - that has already been proven in court they don't have a right to foreclose, they are not the owners.
Also all the various banks just bundled into MERS - so doesn't seem like anyone can foreclose on any houses.
This is getting good.
Membership Rule 8
That's the same rule your Home Owner's Ass(ociation) uses to tell you to take down your garden shed...
MERS
Like the old saying, "No bad deed goes punished..."
if they would have just done across the board modifications from the start, they could avoided all of this .....now pandoras box has been open and there is no way to close it
And, of course, everyone who was foreclosed upon using only MERS documentation will now have their day in court, right?
I'm not holding my breath. Justice is not for us peons.
Don't forget to twist on the way out.
This is very bullish news for Annally capital management
http://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSE:NLY
I guess they didn't get the word that their entire business model is absolutely void!
too bad the contracts still say MERS in them, or does their leaving, weaken all lender contract rights? either way, this still does not protect the banks, in fact, they just weakened themselves even more. totally focused on the wrong side of the matter.
what took them so long? MERS had a great idea. take all mortgages, store them, create easily transferred electronic versions, keep track and collate the documents and allow easy online access. it made so much sense to help make mortgages more manageable. but then they got the bright idea to skirt recording and have random people sign documents. good one guys. the member banks should all sue MERS (themselves).