Municipal Group Of Pension Funds Tell Major Mortgage Servicers To Clean Up Flawed Foreclosure Process

Bloomberg reports:

• A group of seven public-sector pension fund systems called on the boards of the four largest U.S. banks, including Bank of America Corp., to review foreclosure practices, saying there’s a “fundamental” flaw in the companies’ methods. The lenders, which also include Wells Fargo & Co., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc., should report their findings on annual proxy statements to shareholders in coming months, the pension group said.

• The group represents more than $430 billion in pension fund investments, including $5.7 billion invested in the four banks, according to a statement from New York City Comptroller John C. Liu. “The banks’ boards cannot continue to pretend the foreclosure mess is the result of technical glitches and paperwork errors,” Liu said. “There is a fundamental problem in their procedures that endangers not just homeowners, but shareholders, and local economies.”

• The group includes the New York City Pension Funds, the Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds, the Illinois State Board of Investments, the Illinois State Universities Retirement System, the New York State Common Retirement Fund, the North Carolina Retirement Systems, and the Oregon Public Employees’ Retirement Fund.

For more, see Pension Funds Ask Banks to Review Mortgage Practices.