NJ judge lifts holds on major banks’ foreclosures

A New Jersey judge has ruled that four major banks can resume uncontested foreclosure actions in the state under court monitoring, the AP reports. 

Bank of America, Citibank, JP Morgan and Wells Fargo were among six large lenders targeted by New Jersey’s Supreme Court last December. The high court ordered the banks to produce evidence that their foreclosure practices weren’t tainted by irregularities reported around the country.

A report had described instances where employees weren’t trained to process foreclosures and signed hundreds of documents a day without checking them for accuracy, a process known as “robo-signing.”

The banks argued the state overstepped its authority and said they had already begun remedial action last fall.

It was not known if a decision on the other two lenders, OneWest and GMAC, would be released Monday.

If the “robo-signing” scandal really gets your goat, here’s some comic relief: The Daily Show’s John Oliver reports on a couple who foreclosed on their bank. Yes, they foreclosed on their bank.