Wells Fargo Provides Statement on Independent Foreclosure Review Agreement Reached Today
Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) and nine other mortgage servicers have
entered into settlement agreements with the Office of the Comptroller of
the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Reserve Board (FRB) that would end
their Independent Foreclosure Review (IFR) programs created by Article
VII of an April 2011 Interagency Consent Order and replace it with an
accelerated remediation process. Wells Fargo issued the following
statement regarding the agreements.
“We are pleased that the regulators and servicers came together to reach
this settlement, which will bring resolution to more borrowers in an
expedited manner,” said Mike Heid, president of Wells Fargo Home
Mortgage. “This agreement allows us to move forward and continue our
focus on doing all we can do to provide relief to our customers and
restore stability to housing markets across the country.”
Wells Fargo’s portion of the cash settlement will be $766 million, which
is based on the proportionate share of Wells Fargo-serviced loans in the
overall IFR population. Wells Fargo expects to record a pre-tax charge
of approximately $644 million in the fourth quarter of 2012 to fully
reserve for its cash payment portion of the settlement and additional
remediation-related costs. Wells Fargo will commit an additional $1.2
billion to foreclosure prevention actions. This commitment will not
result in any charge as the Company believes that the commitment is
covered through the existing allowance for credit losses and the
nonaccretable difference relating to our purchased credit-impaired loan
portfolio. The Company will report its fourth quarter 2012 results on
January 11, 2013.
About Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a nationwide, diversified,
community-based financial services company with $1.4 trillion in assets.
Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo provides
banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial
finance through more than 9,000 stores, 12,000 ATMs, the Internet (wellsfargo.com),
and has offices in more than 35 countries to support the bank’s
customers who conduct business in the global economy. With more than
265,000 team members, Wells Fargo serves one in three households in the
United States. Wells Fargo & Company was ranked No. 26 on
Fortune’s 2012 rankings of America’s largest corporations. Wells
Fargo’s vision is to satisfy all our customers’ financial needs and help
them succeed financially.