Banksters fess up to illegal mortgage problems

Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Citigroup, as part of annual financial filings with the SEC, admitted that state attorneys general investigations (and a lame-o one by the feds so far) into their, well, illegal use of MERS software in mortgage paperwork filings could well be a financial deadweight and not just a perception issue.

“The current environment of heightened regulatory scrutiny has the potential to subject the corporation to inquiries or investigations that could significantly adversely affect its reputation,” Bank of America said in the filing.

The state and federal inquiries “could result in material fines, penalties, equitable remedies (including requiring default servicing or other process changes), or other enforcement actions, and result in significant legal costs,” Bank of America said.

Wells Fargo said in its filing that it was “likely that one or more of the government agencies will initiate some type of enforcement action,” including possible “civil money penalties.”

Well, boo-hoo. Dr. America prescribes 30CCs of "cramdown" for the sick bankster patients.

More seriously, here's my tentative grand bargain:
1. State AGs as a group, agree to suspend investigations, both on the illegal use of MERS, and on banks wrongfully repo-ing deliquent-mortgage homes to which they don't have clear title in particular, for 18 months.
2. In exchange, without admitting guilt for past use, the banks agree that MERS, by not providing actual paperwork to county clerks, is illegal in all such states with such a requirement, and stop using it ASAP. (I'm assuming they're still using it, in the middle of this mess.)
3. Banks agree to triple their current mortgage-modification programs.
4. Banks agree to reveal what "minimum," as percentage of mortgage principle, they currently have as a cutoff rate for walkaway deals and other mortgage modifications, and to lower that minimum by 10 percentage points.

That's just some back-of-the-napkin figuring. I'm guessing that, given this was part of an SEC filing, that doing all of that would still hit the bottom line no harder than would state financial penalties, should the banksters dig in their heels.