Roy Oppenheim on 7News: Robosigning Settlement is Start of ‘Cleansing Process’

Man 1: Some help for homeowners caught in the foreclosure crisis, a new multi-billion dollar program promising to help victims of fraud, as well as those stuck with underwater mortgages. Seven’s Blake Burman has the latest.

Blake: It is the day homeowners finally got a break from the banks, and the day the big banks admitted they did many Americans wrong. The Obama administration and 49 states attorney general reaching a $25 billion settlement with Bank of America, Wells Fargo, J.P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup, and Ally Financial, formally GMAC.

Barack Obama: Under the terms of this settlement, America’s biggest banks, banks that were rescued by taxpayer dollars, will be required to right these wrongs.

Blake: The settlement for improper practices during the housing meltdown, like processing foreclosures without verifying documents, and using fake signatures to speed them up. Most of the money requires the banks to reduce loans for about a million households at risk of foreclosure. The bulk of the money goes to California and Florida.

Man 2: In Florida alone, we think it’s about $8.5 billion of impact, almost 290,000 families.

Blake: But consumer advocates believe it doesn’t go far enough. For example, the lenders have to pay about 750,000 homeowners improperly foreclosed upon from 2008 to 2011, up to $2,000. Gilbert Gonzalez fought foreclosure for months.

Gilbert: I’ll use this money to go to Orlando or Disney World, take my family on vacation. I mean, I’m not gonna do anything with $2,000.

Blake: The banks will have three years to fulfill the terms of the deal. The administration says it should be available to Florida homeowners in the next few months.

Woman: Anything that could help the public, that could help homeowners, I see it as a positive.

Oppenheim: This is the beginning of a cleansing process, a catharsis, where we’re gonna start holding the banks responsible.

Blake: While the administration says if you feel like you are eligible for any of this, it’s not like you’ve gotta go to your bank immediately. They say, here’s how this’ll happen. That bank’ll put in a plan and once that plan is approved, then they will let whoever might be eligible know exactly what is going on. If you would like to learn more about this deal, all you have to do is head to our website. The information is right there, wsvn.com. We are in Miami, Blake Burman, today in Florida.