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Chicago Foreclosure Hearing Likely, GSEs to Testify

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Two high ranking Democratic congressmen plan to hold a hearing later this month in Chicago to highlight the failure of mortgage servicers to adequately maintain foreclosed properties.

Reps. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., and Danny Davis, D-Ill., want the chief executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to testify along with top executives of Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo & Co., and Deutsche Bank. (BofA, Wells, and JPM, combined, control 50% of the servicing market.)

A recent General Accountability Office report found that local governments are forced to spend millions of dollars on vacant properties that are not adequately maintained.

“We would like to examine the situation in Chicago as a case study of this nationwide problem,” the two congressmen said in a Jan. 5 letter to House Oversight and Government Reform chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif.

As committee chairman, Rep. Issa must approve all travel and expenses for the hearing by members of the minority party. 

The Democrats want to hold the Chicago hearing on Jan. 31.

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