National mortgage direct payment settlement claims administrator unclaimed property

in 2010, the 50 state attorneys initiated a foreclosure investigation against the five largest mortgage service providers. In 2012, the federal and state officials announced a National Mortgage Settlement of certain legal claims with the five mortgage service providers. The settlement is to result in the servicers providing about $25 billion of relief, mainly to homeowners and individuals who recently lost their homes through foreclosure.

The agreements stipulate that in exchange for the release of liability for legal claims that otherwise could have been raised against the servicers by the participating regulator, these five mortgage companies will offer five distinct forms of relief. Under the agreements, the mortgage companies shall

• Comply with specified servicing standards going forward;
• provide various forms of mortgage-related consumer relief to current borrowers whose mortgages are owned and serviced by the five servicers (“Consumer Relief” component);
• provide relief to servicemembers who may have been harmed by violations of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) and to improve the servicing of soldiers’ mortgages to prevent future SCRA violations
• provide compensation to certain individuals whose homes were previously foreclosed by the five servicers.

make direct payments to federal and state governments to cover the resolution of legal claims (Direct Settlement Payment Component)

With the exception of Direct Settlement Payment component, the agreements also offer explicit mechanisms by which compliance of every distinct relief component will be overseen and enforced. The agreements establish an independent monitor with the main authority to conduct oversight of the servicer’s compliance with Consumer Relief and Servicing Standards of the settlement, while the enforcement powers mainly are offered to a Monitoring Committee that is composed of representatives of the federal and state regulators that are parties to the agreement.