Miller
DES MOINES, Iowa (Legal Newsline) - Democratic state attorneys general have been asked to attend a meeting with federal officials next week in hopes of gaining support for a proposed settlement with the nation's top mortgage servicers.
Geoff Greenwood, a spokesman for Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, told Bloomberg on Wednesday that the attorneys general were asked to meet with Miller, Associate Attorney General Thomas Perrelli and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan Jan. 23.
At the meeting in Chicago, officials will go over details of the proposed deal with Democrats. Republican state attorneys general then will discuss the proposed settlement over the phone with Donovan and Perrelli the same day, Greenwood told Bloomberg.
Information on the proposed deal was being sent to all states, he said.
News of the meeting comes days after Greenwood said no settlement had been reached following a one-day meeting of the attorneys general involved.
That meeting took place last Thursday in Washington, D.C.
"We think we're getting very close, but we still don't have a settlement to announce," Greenwood said Tuesday.
Miller had said in December that a deal should be done by Christmas.
For months, the Iowa attorney general has been heading up talks with the five banks over their mortgage foreclosure practices, including Wells Fargo & Co., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc., Ally Financial Inc. and Bank of America Corp.
However, several attorneys general have expressed concern with the process. Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley has filed a lawsuit against the five.
New York's Eric Schneiderman, California's Kamala Harris and Nevada's Catherine Cortez Masto have also started their own investigations.
The probe began in October 2010 with inquiries into so-called "robosigning" practices by several mortgage companies, and has since broadened into identifying and addressing additional alleged improper foreclosure practices.
From Legal Newsline: Reach Jessica Karmasek by email at jessica@legalnewsline.com.