$25 Billion Later Bank Of America, Wells Fargo Still Face Mortgage Trouble From NY AG

Here we go again. Big banks Wells Fargo and Bank of America may be facing additional legal trouble on the mortgage and foreclosure front.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is going after the two big mortgage providers for allegedly violating the terms of last year's $25 billion national mortgage settlement.

The AG says he's documented at least 339 violations of standards including the the timeline for banks to process mortgage modification applications.

The national settlement was a major deal last year and involved all the major banks including BofA, Wells, JPMorgan Chase , Ally Financial and Citigroup . The deal was the result of improper foreclosure on homeowners where so-called robosigners hired by banks signed foreclosure affidavits without reviewing the documents. Robo-signing resulted in unlawful foreclosures.

Soon after robo-signing was discovered the nation's attorneys general got together to settle the matter and got the banks to agree to pay $25 billion. At least $10 billion of it would used to reduce the principal owed by borrowers who are delinquent and owe more than their homes are worth.

NY AG Schneiderman, who for some time held out from joining the national settlement with fellow AGs, says BofA and Wells have since violated some of the terms. Among the alleged violations is the amount of time it's taking banks to process homeowners' applications for relief under the settlement, the AG says.

Wells Fargo said it does not have a comment at this time. Bank of America said in a statement:

“Through March we have provided relief for more than 10,000 New York homeowners through the National Mortgage Settlement, totaling more than $1 billion.  Attorney General Schneiderman has referenced 129 customer servicing problems which we take seriously and will work quickly to address.  This agreement has been good for New York, and we continue using these beneficial programs to assist troubled homeowners in New York and nationally. ”

Mortgage and foreclosure legal troubles have been a major problem for the nation's big banks over the last few years after the housing crisis. Homeowners say banks wrongly foreclosed on them while mortgage security investors have been on the offensive claiming banks have not held up their end of the bargain regarding quality of investments.

Overall, the nation’s six biggest banks by assets including BofA, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and MetLife have agreed to settle for at least $60 billion in credit crisis and mortgage-related settlements, according to data compiled by SNL Financial.

BofA has bore the brunt of the troubles. It's $42 billion legal tab makes up 66% of the total amount the top six biggest banks have agreed to pay in 2010, 2011 and 2012. Of the $25 billion from the national mortgage settlement BofA was subject to pay roughly $11 billion of it.

Wells Fargo has the next largest tab with $8.3 billion in settlements over the course of three years ending in 2012. Wells was subject to pay $5.3 billion of the $25 billion mortgage settlement.