BofA's "Independent" Foreclosure Review Based Largely On Work It Does Itself? Crucial Judgment As To Compensation Entitlement "Only A Matter Of Double Checking" Bankster's Work: Report

Investigative reporter Paul Kiel writes in ProPublica:

• Late last year, the country's bank regulators launched a massive program to evaluate millions of foreclosure cases and compensate homeowners who fell victim to the banks' flawed or illegal practices. Regulators dubbed it the "Independent Foreclosure Review" to emphasize that the banks would not be making key decisions about loans they had made or serviced.
  
  But a raft of evidence — internal Bank of America memos and emails obtained by ProPublica, interviews with two bank staff members who have worked on the review, and little-noticed documents released late last year by a federal banking regulator — throw the independence of the review into serious doubt. Together, they indicate that Bank of America — the financial giant with the largest number of homeowners eligible for the program — is performing much of the work itself.
  
  The ultimate decision as to whether and how much a homeowner will be compensated is not made by Bank of America, the evidence shows, but is based largely on work that the bank itself performs. One current employee called that crucial judgment "only a matter of double checking" the bank's work.
  
  Moreover, the bank gets a chance to challenge that key decision before it becomes final — an opportunity not given to homeowners.

For more, see Is BofA’s Foreclosure Review Really Independent? You Be the Judge.