Attorney General Koster announces preliminary support for proposed multistate settlement with mortgage servicing industry

Jefferson City, MO – February 9, 2012 – (RealEstateRama) — Attorney General Chris Koster announced today that he has given preliminary support to a proposed multistate agreement with some of the largest financial institutions in the country to settle civil claims related to the national mortgage foreclosure crisis.

For the last 15 months, Koster said, the attorneys general of all 50 states and the federal government have been negotiating a settlement with the five largest mortgage lenders in America over their allegedly flawed and fraudulent mortgage foreclosure practices. Koster, who participated in the negotiations in both Missouri and Washington, D.C., believes that the two sides have made substantial progress and are nearing agreement.

While not at liberty to disclose the full terms of the proposed settlement, Koster said that Missouri could receive in excess of $40 million in direct payments from the banks and in excess of $100 million in additional benefits to Missouri homeowners. Should the negotiations come to a productive conclusion in the coming days, Koster has indicated that he will sign the agreement on behalf of Missouri.

“My intention is to settle this portion of the state’s case against the banks,” Koster said, “returning more than a hundred million dollars directly to mortgage holders in our state and adding tens of millions of dollars to the state’s general revenue fund in these difficult economic times.”

Koster said the negotiations continue to move in a positive direction and he hopes a settlement will be finalized soon.

Earlier in the week, Koster announced that he has obtained a grand jury indictment against DOCX LLC and its former president, Lorraine Brown, for their alleged role in the robo-signing scandal. This is the first indictment anywhere in the United States against a corporation for these practices.