Wells Fargo Foreclosure Problems

After stating that they were confident with their procedures and documents, Wells Fargo has now admitted they made mistakes in the paperwork for thousands of foreclosure cases. They announced plans to refile documents in 55,000 of the cases by mid-November. Wells Fargo described the mistakes as technical and said it has no plans to halt the foreclosure process, though filing new paperwork will cause some delays.

“We don't believe that there are instances in which the foreclosures would not have occurred otherwise,” said Teri Schrettenbrunner, a Wells Fargo spokeswoman. The documents are being refiled in the 23 states where a judge's approval is needed to complete a foreclosure.

Wells Fargo’s CEO, John Stumpf, has declined to join Bank of America Corp., Ally Financial Inc.'s GMAC Mortgage and other banks in suspending foreclosures because of flawed paperwork that surfaced at several large banks. On a conference call with investors this month, Stumpf said the bank is "confident that our practices, procedures and documentation" are accurate.

Depositions of two Wells Fargo employees have called the company's foreclosure practices into question. A Fort Mill, S.C.-based Wells employee said in a deposition taken last March that she signed between 300 and 500 foreclosure documents per day. In another deposition taken in May, another Wells employee said he verified only the dates on up to 150 foreclosure documents he signed daily and relied on co-workers to ensure that other information was correct.