The first baseline report detailing progress under the $25 billion servicing settlement will be issued by the end of the month, according to the independent monitor appointed to oversee the agreement between five major servicers and 49 states.
The public report will be based on a tally of the relief provided so far on a state-by-state basis, monitor Joseph Smith said at the American Association of Residential Mortgage Regulators’ annual conference in Boston.
To their benefit, Smith noted, the five servicers are providing the count “outside” what is required of them in the basic settlement.
The monitor, who served as the commissioner of banks in his home state of North Carolina prior to his appointment, said the report “will give us an idea of how we are doing so far.”
“If you don’t tell people something, people will write the story for you,” he said of the interim report. “I’d rather be criticized for the things we do rather than for what things people think we should do.”
A record 250 people are attending the four-day conference, including regulators from 45 states. Numerous federal regulators also are here, as are dozens of mortgage industry players. (For a larger story see the Monday paper edition of National Mortgage News.)
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