JPMorgan Chase freezes foreclosures

JPMorgan Chase, the third-largest home loan servicer in the United States, has frozen 56,000 open foreclosure cases as it examines whether defective documents may have been filed in court, according to the Palm Beach Post. The move, which has little precedent, comes after news that Ally Financial, a global financial services company, had frozen part of its operations when it was revealed that an employee approved affidavits claiming personal knowledge of foreclosure cases when he did not know anything about them. JPMorgan is carrying $1.35 trillion in mortgage nationwide. “As a result, we have begun to systematically re-examine documents we have filed in current foreclosure proceedings to verify that the affidavits and other documents meet the standard of personal knowledge or review where that is required,” said Tom Kelly, a JPMorgan spokesperson. [Palm Beach Post]