The banks with the largest dollar amounts of foreclosed home loans on their books are JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co., according to analyst firm SNL Financial.
Several large banks, including JPMorgan Chase and B of A, have instituted widespread foreclosure halts due to concerns about documentation. The halts come when many of the biggest lenders are struggling to work through the nonperforming assets still weighing on their books.
JPMorgan Chase has $19.5 billion, or 7.5% ,of its one- to four-family mortgage loans, in foreclosure, according to data from SNL. B of A has $18.7 billion, or 4.39%, and Wells has $17.5 billion, or 4.74%.
The three big mortgage lenders have billions more in servicing rights on loans in foreclosure. B of A has $88 billion of loans it services for other lenders where the properties are in foreclosure; JPMorgan Chase has $54.5 billion and Wells Fargo has $36.4 billion. The data is as of June 30.
State regulators and federal lawmakers are demanding banks halt foreclosures while they probe allegations of abusive practices by lenders and loan servicers, including improper reviews of borrowers' files and problems with documentation.
Bank of America has already agreed to stop the process in 50 states. JPMorgan Chase stopped foreclosures in 23 states and will expand it to a few other states. Wells Fargo and U.S. Bancorp said last week they would not stop foreclosures. Ally Financial Inc. has suspended evictions and foreclosure sales in 23 states. Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which does not appear in SNL's data, has suspended foreclosures through its Litton Loan Servicing unit in an undisclosed number of states until it completes a review of its documents.
A JPMorgan Chase spokesman said, "We have requested that the courts not enter judgments in pending matters until we complete our review" of foreclosure documents. Through its GMAC Mortgage unit, Ally said Tuesday it hired several legal and accounting firms to independently review its foreclosure procedures in all 50 states. A Litton Loan spokeswoman would not provide more details. Spokesmen for Bank of America and Wells Fargo did not have an immediate comment.
A spokesman for U.S. Bancorp, in an e-mail, said, "We do not have plans to halt foreclosures."
SNL ranked Barclays, New York Private Bank & Trust Corp. and Ally as the lenders with the highest percentage of their one- to four-family home loans in foreclosure.
According to its data, Barclays has $495 million, or 17.7% of its one- to four-family loans, in foreclosure proceedings, New York Private Bank has $378 million, or 12.05%, and Ally has $2.1 billion, or 10.16%.
Barclays says it sold its HomeEq mortgage-servicing operation to Ocwen Financial Corp. last month, making Ocwen the third largest U.S. subprime servicer.
A spokesman for New York Private Bank said the company expects losses on its portfolio to be minimal, and added, "we do not service any securitized debt, but only mortgages which we originated for our own portfolio."
Others in the top ten with the largest percentage of foreclosed loans are HSBC North America, with 9% of its one- to four-family loans in foreclosure, and MetLife Inc., with 6.44%. Several of the top ten were in Puerto Rico: Doral GP Ltd. has 8.58% of its one- to four-family loans in foreclosure; First BanCorp Puerto Rico has 7.06%; Oriental Financial Group has 6.42%, and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A.'s Puerto Rico operation has 6.21%.
