Released: May 15, 2008

Senator wants FTC to join Countrywide investigation

Source: Kevin McCoy, USA Today

A top Senate Democrat on Wednesday asked the Federal Trade Commission to join other government and court agencies investigating Countrywide Financial, (CFC) the nation’s largest home mortgage lender.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts, made the request based on what he called “an emerging pattern of apparent misconduct” in Countrywide’s treatment of borrowers who seek bankruptcy-court protection.

The request followed a May 6 subcommittee hearing at which witnesses testified that Countrywide and other mortgage lenders abuse the bankruptcy-court system by filing unjustified foreclosures against struggling borrowers, piling on questionable fees and misstating amounts owed. “This behavior has contributed to an industrywide crisis that has harmed homeowners, roiled Wall Street and stalled the economy,” Schumer wrote in the request to FTC Chairman William Kovacic. 

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