MERS: A Primer

The Washington Post recently ran a story on Virginia-based Mortgage Electronic Registrations Systems ("MERS"), the electronic clearinghouse serving as a registry with a reported 67 million mortgages on file, that is said to be at the center of the foreclosure mess by its critics.

For those who don't know much about MERS, the story may be worth a read.(1)

For the story, see How a mortgage clearinghouse became a villain in the foreclosure mess.

In a related commentary, see Rolling Stone: An Extremely Long Metaphor to Explain Mortgage Chaos (describing MERS as "essentially an effort at systematically evading taxes and hiding information from homeowners in ways that enabled the Countrywides of the world to defraud investors and avoid legal consequences for same").

(1) For some additional insight on MERS, see:

• MERS 101,
• Foreclosure, Subprime Mortgage Lending, and the Mortgage Electronic Registration System,
• Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc.: A Survey of Cases Discussing MERS’ Authority to Act,
• Two Faces: Demystifying the Mortgage Electronic Registration System’s Land Title Theory.