June 4, 2013

Feds probe banks for credit card practices

WASHINGTON – Federal regulators are widening a probe into whether the nation’s biggest banks used flawed documents and incomplete records to collect on delinquent credit card debts, according to four people familiar with the investigation.

The scope of the inquiry is unclear, but those familiar with it report that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is expanding an ongoing investigation that began in 2011 with allegations that JPMorgan Chase was using error-filled documents in lawsuits against debtors.

The regulatory agency is examining the process that several banks use to verify consumers’ outstanding debt before taking legal action, say people who were not authorized to speak about an ongoing investigation.

An OCC spokesman declined to comment.

The concerns about credit card debt collection echo the wave of shoddy foreclosures that hit after the housing market collapsed. In those cases, as homeowners defaulted on their loans in droves, mortgage servicers were accused of falsifying records and “robo-signing” hundreds of documents without actually reviewing them.

Similarly, banks have filed hundreds of thousands of lawsuits against delinquent credit card holders in the wake of the financial crisis.

As millions of Americans fell behind on payments, the charge-off rate for credit cards soared to $85 billion by the end of 2009, according to credit-card comparison site Cardhub.com.

Consumer attorneys began noting a number of collection cases built on shoddy records. Authorities in California, for instance, say JPMorgan flooded the courts with lawsuits against credit card holders based on flimsy evidence that card holders were in default, according to a lawsuit filed earlier this month by the state’s attorney general.

The complaint says the bank signed off on hundreds of legal documents “without any knowledge of the facts alleged in the document and without regard to the truth and accuracy of those facts.”

Regulators began examining the debt collection practices of JPMorgan in 2011 after a former bank employee, Linda Almonte, said nearly 23,000 delinquent accounts were riddled with inaccuracies, according to people with knowledge of the probe.

Almonte, who sued JPMorgan for wrongful termination, claimed she was fired after warning her supervisors about the records.

Officials at JPMorgan declined to comment on the whistleblower lawsuit or the OCC probe.

www.journalgazette.net

More...

The above statements do not represent those of Weston Legal or Michael Weston and they have not been reviewed for accuracy. The statements have been published by a third party and are being linked to by our website only because they contain information relating to debt. Nothing in this article should be construed as legal advice given by Weston Legal or Michael Weston. To view the source of the article, please following the link to the website that published the article. Articles written by Michael W. Weston can be viewed here: To report any problem with this article please email creditcardlawsuit@westonlegal.com