Sense on Cents

I wish I had the silver bullet to address and fix the rampant abusive practices that have transpired within the mortgage servicing entities of many of our large banks and elsewhere.

I don’t.

That said, the ongoing problematic issues within mortgage servicing practices remain prevalent. How do I know? I hear from people entangled in this mess on an ongoing basis.

In my opinion, these issues go right to the core of what I believe is the problem with the structure of our banking industry in America today. That problem centers on the fact that we have a few banks (e.g., JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo) that dominate the market, especially within the mortgage realm.

As many longtime readers of my blog are aware, this economic structure known as an oligopoly allows, if not promotes, the following abusive type practices:

1. price controls, if not outright market manipulation, via collusion
2. little to no competition
3. hoarding of information and charging excessive prices to those who want or need access to it
4. banks acting in their own self-interest rather than on behalf of their customers

Regrettably, far too many of our fellow citizens still dealing with these institutions in terms of addressing the servicing of their mortgages find themselves caught in this web. What is one to do?

I have heard from so many people who have exhausted countless hours in an attempt to get some degree of satisfaction with little to show for it. Little doubt why many are questioning the spirit of fair dealings and justice in our nation today when they are not able to get satisfaction on this front.  The only issue that I might even possibly compare this frustration to is the anguish felt by so many in attempting to address their healthcare coverage. So what might one do? My tact on addressing issues of this sort is three fold:

1. I always look for somebody inside an organization, in this case the mortgage servicer, to whom I can go and make them “own” my case. This can certainly be a challenge and I do not pretend it is easily accomplished. I do think it is far better to spend time and effort in this pursuit than circuitously navigating a servicer in what likely feels like a merry go round.

2. Take the same tact with your elected officials, those being your attorneys general, congressmen and congresswomen, and people within the newly launched Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Get very specific and demand that an individual stand up to “own” your case and fight on your behalf.

3. How to hold these individuals and entities accountable? Public pressure via writing about your experience and getting very specific in terms of names and details via blogs and other social media outlets. Inform the individuals up front as to the fact that you are taking your case and fight into the public arena. They will not appreciate this fact but that is too bad.

Having engaged countless investors and consumers who have been abused on a variety of fronts, ultimately I believe these steps as laid out above are the best way to go about trying to get some satisfaction.

I would certainly welcome hearing from individuals with personal experience in this space.

I will be addressing these topics on February 9th in an interview on Blogtalk Radio.

Navigate accordingly.

Larry Doyle

Please order a copy of my book, In Bed with Wall Street: The Conspiracy Crippling Our Global Economy.

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The opinions expressed are my own. I am a proponent of real transparency within our markets so that investor confidence and investor protection can be achieved.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 27th, 2014 at 8:28 AM and is filed under foreclosures, General, Mortgage Crisis, Mortgages. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.