NEW: RI Will Receive $450K from Lender Processing Services Settlement
Thursday, January 31, 2013
The State of Rhode Island stands to make just under $450,000 as part of a multi-state settlement reached this week with Lender Processing Services (LPS) and its subsidiaries.
The deal, which was announced today by Attorney General Peter Kilmartin, is part of an overall $128 million dollar settlement with the company over its robo-signing practices during the recent housing and foreclosure crisis across the nation.
According to the suit, the Florida-based company, which provides technological support to banks and mortgage loan servicers, participated in “improper conduct” related to mortgage loan default servicing and, with the settlement, Lender Processing Services will have to reform its business practices and, if needed, will have to assist homeowners by correcting documents it helped execute.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThe company was accused of allowing employees who were not authorized to do so to sign legal documents “en masse” and notaries improperly certified the signing of the documents “even though they were executed outside of their presence.”
“There is no question that companies engaged in suspect activities during the housing crisis, most notably robo-signing in which foreclosures took place based on unreviewed or forged documents,” Kilmartin said. “Today’s settlement punishes the nation’s largest robo-signing service provider and sets new standards and practices in place to ensure the practice does not occur in the future.”
The settlement will require LPS to properly execute documents going forward and will prohibit signatures by unauthorized individuals.
In addition, LPS will be prohibited from the practice of “surrogate signing of documents” and will be required to enhance its oversight and review over the third parties it manages as well as abide by a number of other conditions meant to prevent a similar controversy from occurring in the future.
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