Atlanta bank admits errors in foreclosure processes

Last year, mortgage lenders across the country were forced to halt their foreclosure procedures after mass allegations that the lenders were improperly processing foreclosure documents in a practice that came to be known as ‘robo-signing’. However, the lenders quickly restarted foreclosure processes, claiming that they had found no issues and refusing to take any blame for the issues. One Atlanta-based bank has bucked this trend, recently announcing that it discovered issues with over 4,000 of its active foreclosure cases.

Last month, officials with SunTrust Banks announced that an internal review had led to the discovery of “technical issues” in several thousand of its foreclosure cases. The bank stated that several of its employees had engaged in practices similar to robo-signing, signing foreclosure documents without personally verifying the information contained in the document.

In a statement, bank officials stated that these problems affected less than 15 percent of its active cases in states that require judicial approval before a foreclosure can be completed. Although the bank did not specify the states affected by the issues, it is unlikely that Georgia foreclosures are included in the internal review because Georgia law does not call for such judicial intervention. However, Florida is believed to be a main focus of the bank’s review.

The bank reportedly began its internal review in September. It is aiming to complete the review and resubmit foreclosure documents as necessary before the completion of the first quarter. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Justice and the attorneys general of all 50 states, including Georgia, will continue to investigate mortgage lenders and the robo-signing allegations.

Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “SunTrust reports issues in 4,000 foreclosure cases”, J. Scott Trubey, 25 February 2011