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Scam Alert – Be On the Lookout for Fund Release Emails

Consumers have reported receiving fictitious email messages, allegedly initiated by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), regarding funds purportedly under the control of the OCC. Any communication claiming that the OCC is involved in holding any funds for the benefit of any individual or entity is fraudulent. The OCC does not participate …

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Your Bank Will Drive You Longer in Debt Than the Return Trip

One of the options you can use to get out of debt is a Debt Management Plan (DMP) from a non-profit credit counseling agency. These groups can organize many of your unsecured debts into one monthly payment that consumers make to the agency. It is then divided up and sent along it’s merry way to …

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New Bank Guidance Can Be a Debt Collection Game Changer

The Office of the Comptroller of Currency has issued guidance to banks it supervises that will be used to supervise the bad debt and debt collection practices of banks. The new guidance is not a rule yet but it is the OCC document on what is “best practices.” The focus of the rule is bad …

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Office of the Comptroller of the Currency Money Waiting – Scam Alert

The government agency, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is warning consumers to be on the lookout for fraudulent messages that are intended to scam money out of consumers. The OCC says fictitious correspondence, allegedly issued by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) regarding funds purportedly under the control of …

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Doubts Spread About Independent Foreclosure Reviews

by Paul Kiel ProPublica The idea behind the Independent Foreclosure Review seems simple. During the peak of the foreclosure crisis, the banks broke laws and made errors that hurt homeowners. In response, the government mandated they compensate the victims. But there is growing evidence some banks are playing a major role in identifying the victims …

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Big Foreclosure Compensation, But Only for the Right Wrongs

by Paul Kiel ProPublica Can you put a price on the damage caused by a wrongful foreclosure? Banking regulators have. And it’s $125,000. Or $60,000. Or $15,000. Or2026 it’s unclear. Last November, banking regulators launched a process to force the big banks to compensate homeowners victimized by their foreclosure abuses. Many crucial details remained unclear, …

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OCC Issues Cease and Desist Letter Against Citibank

The OCC announced it has sent a cease and desist letter to Citibank regarding “identified deficiencies in the Bank’s overall program for Bank Secrecy Act/anti-money laundering (“BSA/AML”) compliance” As we all know, banks make mistakes. It just seems that typically it is the consumers that wind up paying for them. The OCC found that the …

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Reader Feels Shafted by OCC and CitiMortgage on HAMP

Rudy, a reader of the site forwarded me this information to share with you regarding their recent attempts to get their mortgage modified through HAMP. Rudy Says Dear Steve: Who will bail us out while our government can bail out hundreds of billion dollars to big banks and other financial institutions because they are just …

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Your Local Bank May Become Your New Payday Lender

National Consumer Law Center has uncovered a spreading Main Street bank trend in the payday lending world. Back in 2008 I had written an article about Kinceta Federal Credit Union in California that felt being in the payday loan business was good for their customers. At the time, the thought that a bank or credit …

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Banks Still Foreclosing on Wrong People

by Paul Kiel, ProPublica Four years into the foreclosure crisis, banks say they’ve made major improvements in how they handle struggling homeowners. They’ve promised, for example, not to foreclose on homeowners who are being considered for mortgage modifications. But that’s still happening. Consider the cases of Laurie Pinkerton and Lisa Peterson. The two women, both …

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