Online Mortgage Complaint Tool Launched

Joseph L. Smith, the court-appointed monitor to oversee the massive mortgage settlement reached earlier this year between 49 states, the federal government and five major banks, announced the launch of an online tool for consumer advocates to report their clients' mortgage servicing complaints. The online form can be found at www.mortgageoversight.com/report-client-issues/.

Last month, Smith officially assumed his position as monitor of the joint state-federal mortgage servicing settlement with Ally/GMAC, Bank of America, Citi JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, in which the banks agreed to pay up to $25 billion to distressed borrowers. In his role, Smith works to ensure that the banks comply with the requirements outlined in the settlement agreement.

According to a news release, Smith will use the information gathered from this online tool to see how the servicers comply with the settlement, and will look for trends in servicing complaints as the banks move forward with implementing the agreement.

"Lawyers, caseworkers and other consumer advocates are the eyes and ears on the ground who will know first, and know intimately, what kind of difference these payments, adjustments and programs are making," Smith said in a statement. "That's why we've created this dedicated tool – to see what they’re seeing."

Bryan Yurcan is associate editor for Bank Systems and Technology. He has worked in various editorial capacities for newspapers and magazines for the past 8 years. After beginning his career as a municipal and courts reporter for daily newspapers in upstate New York, Bryan has ... View Full Bio