Clearly, no one suspected this would make such good TV.
C-Span cut away to Rangel, and it's taken some searching to find live video. No cps, but I'm sure some key exchanges will go viral.
Today's hearing is the House version of what the Senate did on Tuesday.
But where only Bruce Marks of NACA got on TV, Rep. Maxine Waters is not only in charge of the brigade she has her facts down, and has landed several significant blows on the government agencies (Panel One) and banks (Panel Two.)
Currently, they're on lunch break.
Rep. Waters asked the government panel members if they understand how the homeowner interacts with banks when calling for help. She laid out several opportunities for them to show what their agencies do. She also asked if they understand how banks treat the customer.
Using a fictional Miss Jones, I paraphrase Rep. Waters:
"Do any of you know what happens when someone having a problem calls the bank?" No response.
"How many of you know that if Miss Jones would like to talk about a mod, she is being referred someplace else for help?"
FHA finally said 'we believe it is an issue.'
"How many of you know what banks have loss mitigation departments offshore. How many of you know they may be talking to someone in India? Her first contact may be talking to someone in India, Taiwan or someplace."
Phyllis Caldwell of Treasury knows it may be possible. Rep. Waters notes the homeowner may not know they're not calling the local bank, or even a United States agent. She's trying to explain homeowner is talking to a person with a cookie cutter sheet (CSR script). Miss Jones may not understand the person she is talking to is reading from a script, and is not actually someone who could look into her account with the bank, to decide if she is eligible for a modification or not.
She is talking to someone who was given a set of questions to ask her. That CSR tells Miss Jones she is or is not able to get a modification based on answers to questions on a list. Not on her account history, or history with the bank. Yet, they are making a life altering decision - from a computer overseas somewhere.
Then comes THE MONEY LINE.
I will say again, you must see how Maxine Waters delivers this line. To see it in print does not do it justice.
"If you understand it, why can't you do something about it?" Maxine asks.
The venom in her tone will make this viral video.
"Miss Jones has a property underwater, and so, Miss Jones will not qualify based on difference of income, and she wants to talk about with the income she does have that does not meet the qualifications described. What should she do..."
LONG PAUSE...
Phyllis Caldwell attempted to defend HAMP.
Rep. Waters also nailed OCC.
She described the problem the customer is having dealing with the bank. What can OCC do? How can OCC help.
"We do public service announcements, we have an 800 number..."
"Do you think the average citizen knows about that?" she asked. Crushed him.
"Since we started experiencing fallout from subprime, has OCC taken any action fines against the lenders. " No
"Cease and desist?" No public actions.
"Revoked any charters?" No.
"Do you think servicers fear anything if they have no consequences? You haven't done any of that. Why should they take you seriously?"
"Can you explain how you don't know of the problems that have come to light?"
"It's important for somebody to understand what the homeowner is confronted with when they are seeking help and wishing to talk with someone who can make decisions. If that was understood, you have the power to make systems work so homeowners can get assistance. So many families are devastated, from these exotic products, some would like to say they're irresponsible, but I've said, you don't have this many americans suddenly becoming irresponsible. We all know these exotic products came onto the market and simply placed homeowners in the position of trying to follow the american dream because they're now told I can get you in to a house. What can you tell us today that you can do to straighten this out?"
Waters did a cute bit when she held up a set of depositions from employees of the various banks. She noted she did not have any from MERS. Which, of course, has no employees. Gently rubbing in the fact by her act that MERS has no employees. The MERS guy didn't respond.
They've been tweaking their claim from they have ability to foreclose, to they only do it when asked.
She asked them if fabricating documents is fraud. They dodged it. They finessed it. The Citi black guy basically suggested it's based on the case. Is that a yes, if we have to? He didn't help his case.
The web feed crashed during the banksters panel. But it got in the opening public relations reads, including Rebecca Mairone's mash-up of her Huffington Post piece, and we have a black guy from Citi-Mortgage. Meaning, they're in deep doo-doo, based on PR102. (If you need pr, get a white guy. if you're in trouble, get a woman. If you're in deep trouble, get a black woman. If you're in really deep shit trouble, get a black guy.)
Citi is being investigated for fraud, announced today.
From Twitter, several folks noted the Wells Fargo guy said
From @matthewstoller: Wow, Wells Fargo rep just said that servicer conflicts of interest are there for 'customer convenience' #ffraud
Zach Carter noted that Marione suggested fabricating documents is not fraud.
Oops, they're back. Be back later.