I'M A TWO TIMER

Since it's Friday and the weekend is upon us, what's wrong with a little two-timing? Now hold on a second. Don't run out and call Gloria Allred. She's too busy grubbing headlines with Meg Whitman's ex-housekeeper anyway. The two timing I am talking about is two different, but very telling stories that broke today. And below are both of them: _______________________________________________________________________________

ONE TIMING

The first of our two tales from Realtor Magazine has to do with the distinct possibility that mortgage servicers may very well have to to the two thing they hate to do most. They also happen to be what most people think would expedite the housing mess. One of those is principle forgiveness. The other is realistic, workable, wholesale loan modifications. As we discussed in a recent post, your mortgage servicer is in a whole heap of trouble right now for how they have .. ahemmm...professionally handled their foreclosures. They have been ohhhh so quick to ignore little things like government mandates, best practices, and a pesky thing like forgery laws. But they've been a tad careless in how they processed homes through foreclosure. Just ask the homeowner in Florida who had his home foreclosed on. He'd never been late...BECAUSE HE PAID CASH!!! OOOPSSSSS!!! Because servicers are all now under a HUGE microscope, suddenly things like principle forgiveness and a willingness to modify are all the rage. Those silly kids. They are all caught up in being cool!

States Plan to Investigate Mortgage Servicers A coalition of attorneys general from as many as 40 states is expected to announce Wednesday the launch of a joint investigation of the mortgage-servicing industry.The attorneys general say they intend to first determine the scale of the problem and correct the issues. Several of them also have said that they believe one of the results of the investigation could be an agreement that forces lenders and servicers to make mass loan modifications or adopt principal forgiveness plans.Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray says, "I think the mortgage-servicing firms need to understand that they face real exposure now, and they would be well advised to take this very seriously, to clean this up by doing loan workouts to keep people in their homes, which up till now they've just paid lip-service to.”Source: The Wall Street Journal, Robbie Whelan and Ruth Simon (10/11/2010)_______________________________________________________________________________YOU LOUSY TWO TIMER

It was sheer coincidence that this article ended up under this heading. I swear.

So on to our freakishly tanned, and inhumanly leathered buddy, Angelo Mozilo. You remember "Moz". He's the guy that ran Countrywide into the ground, and sold most of his stock just before the crash hit. He's such a kidder!
So today, Angelo decides it might be a much better thing to settle with the SEC than to go to trial. Seems that perhaps mortgage servicers (even ex- ones that look like they are giving the Vulcan salute) may be re-thinking their heretofore blindly arrogant positions.

LOS ANGELES Fri Oct 15, 2010 3:00pm EDT
LOS ANGELES(Reuters) - Former Countrywide Financial Corp Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo has agreed to settle a lawsuit with securities regulators, ending one of the highest profile enforcement actions to come from the financial collapse.
Mozilo, along with former Countrywide President David Sambol and former Chief Financial Officer Eric Sieracki, did not appear in the Los Angeles federal court on Friday morning where the settlement between the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and all three executives was announced.
Mozilo will pay a $22.5 million civil penalty, plus $45 million in disgorgement, according to U.S. District Court Judge John Walter.
All three defendants settled without admitting or denying any wrongdoing.
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Writing by Dan Levine; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)