MERS (Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems) is ‘facing scores of lawsuits and state probes that challenge its business model as well as the legality of its filings in hundreds of county courthouses’, according to Bloomberg's Businessweek. If its current problems cannot be resolved there is a fear that lenders, including Bank of America, would have to make ‘costly changes’ to their loan portfolios. 

Legal departures

Recent departures at MERS include the chief legal officer, the national litigation co-ordinator and corporate counsel. Stephanie Heller, deputy general counsel of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said: ‘Reforming an archaic legal infrastructure and addressing the mountains of paper that impose burdens on modern mortgage finance is a daunting task, but if ever there was a time to consider such an effort, it is now.’ Source: Bloomberg