Marcy Kaptur: “It has been reported that JPMorgan Chase has agreed to a $13 billion settlement of the civil suit filed by the United…”

“It has been reported that JPMorgan Chase has agreed to a $13 billion settlement of the civil suit filed by the United States Department of Justice and the Federal Housing Finance Agency in order to resolve several investigations into their mortgage securities finagling. JPMorgan and it affiliates knowingly misrepresented the value and quality of the mortgage bonds that it sold to the housing finance agency. Compared to the trillions that Wall Street banks have extracted in home equity from the American people, a $13 billion settlement with JPMorgan Chase doesn't come close to repaying the American people what they are owed back. More cases need to be filed to mete out justice and recoup what has been wrongly taken. Of the $13 billion settlement, $4 billion will be for the Federal Housing Finance Agency which will go to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. How that filters down to the street, to the ordinary homeowner, we can't predict. Two billion will be credited through JPMorgan's reduction of principal on mortgages in areas hardest hit by foreclosures like Detroit and cities like Cleveland and Toledo in Ohio. JPMorgan Chase currently holds--get this--nearly 1 million mortgages: 208,000 mortgages considered seriously delinquent and an excess of 700,000 which are underwater. That's too much power over our marketplace in too few hands.…”