On June 17, 2015, the OCC announced its intention to escheat at the end of 2015 any remaining uncashed payments made pursuant to the Independent Foreclosure Review Payment Agreement. According to OCC estimates, approximately $280 million from OCC-supervised institutions will remain unclaimed at the end of 2015 despite efforts to locate eligible borrowers. The decision to escheat all funds available from uncashed checks provides an opportunity for the remaining eligible borrowers and their heirs to claim the funds through their states' escheatment claims processes. Concurrently with the decision, the OCC terminated foreclosure-related consent orders against three national bank mortgage servicers (Bank of America, N.A., Citibank N.A., and PNC Bank, N.A.) that the OCC deemed to have met the consent order requirements, and imposed business restrictions on six banks that have not completed the required corrective actions. The restrictions issued by the OCC include limitations on the acquisition of residential mortgage servicing or residential mortgage servicing rights; new contracts for the bank to perform residential mortgage servicing for other parties; outsourcing or sub-servicing of new residential mortgage servicing activities to other parties; off-shoring new residential mortgage servicing activities; and new appointments of senior officials responsible for residential mortgage servicing or residential mortgage servicing risk management and compliance. The specific restrictions imposed on the banks vary based on the particular circumstance of each bank.
The OCC press release is available at: http://www.occ.gov/news-issuances/news-releases/2015/nr-occ-2015-85.html.
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