Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, today released a letter to Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, and Thomas Curry, Comptroller of the Currency, seeking additional, detailed information from the regulators about the termination of the Independent Foreclosure Review (IFR).

Ranking Member Waters has been a leading advocate for foreclosure prevention, and has closely monitored the IFR since its inception in early 2011. Designed to investigate abuses by mortgage servicers, the IFR abruptly came to an end on Jan. 7 when the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve reached a tentative $9.3 billion settlement with mortgage servicers. The settlement is intended to resolve claims of wrongdoing by the servicers against an estimated 4.4 million borrowers.

To better understand why the IFR was cancelled and how the settlement amount was determined, Ranking Member Waters has requested that the regulators provide detailed information pertaining to the IFR including Policies and Procedures documents created by independent consultants outlining how loan files were to be reviewed by analysts, information on error rates of reviewed loan files, guidelines issued by the regulators to independent consultants relating to the foreclosure notice process, and other pertinent information.

Earlier this month, Ranking Member Waters sent a letter to both regulators soliciting information about the  settlement’s terms, and requesting that they include provisions concerning a minimum amount for principal reductions, and other measures to more immediately  assist borrowers who remain in their homes.

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