Fed hits MetLife with $3.2M sanction

Posted on Aug 8, 2012 in Business | 0 comments

The U.S. Federal Reserve Board hit MetLife with a $3.2 million fine for failing to adequately oversee its subsidiaries’ home loan and foreclosure operations.

When levying the sanction, the Fed took into account the relative severity of MetLife’s misconduct and the size of MetLife’s foreclosure activities, among other things, the board said Tuesday in a release.

In April, the Fed issued a formal enforcement action against MetLife for its oversight deficiencies. The action against MetLife was among 14 corrective actions issued against large mortgage servicers or their holding companies for shady procedures in home loan servicing and foreclosure processing.

The Fed said it took action against MetLife now because MetLife had announced its plan to sell a subsidiary banking operations. If the sale — subject to formal approval by other regulators — goes through, MetLife no longer would be a bank holding company.

The sanction is the latest settlement in an ongoing federal effort to resolve problems with mortgage servicing and foreclosure processing that emerged during the housing crisis. Five of the nation’s largest mortgage servicing organizations reached a $25 billion settlement and the Fed reached settlements with individual institutions during the last several months.

The Fed said MetLife was not part of the earlier broad settlement but said if MetLife reached agreement with state prosecutors and the Justice Department by June 30, 2013, it could deduct the amount it spent on helping borrowers under the settlement from the Fed sanction. MetLife would be required to pay the Fed whatever amount was not spent by Aug. 6, 2014, which would be spent on foreclosure counseling or conducting independent foreclosure reviews.

Copyright 2012 by United Press International