Banks to Pay Billions Over Foreclosure Violations

As of today, five of America's largest banks have agreed to a $25 billion dollar settlement over foreclosure violations.  Bank of America, CitiBank, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo and GMAC were confronted by 49 Attorney Generals representing every state except Oklahoma.

Montana is estimated to receive nearly $20.4 million dollars which will be used for new protections for homeowners, counseling services, loan modifications, and direct payments to homeowners who lost their homes to foreclosure between 2008 and 2011.

The settlement came about after a national investigation into the way the banks were signing foreclosure paperwork. The main fault was the common use of a process known as "robo-signing," wherein the banks would sign foreclosure paperwork without observation by a notary public. This is a clear violation of state and federal law.  Often, the details in the paperwork were not even verified by the signer.

One of the Attorney General's on the case was Montana's Steve Bullock. Here's what he had to say.

Look for KGVO updates on this story in the near future.