JP Morgan Chase Testifies before House Veterans’ Affairs Committee about violating the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act
Members of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee tore into an apologetic JPMorgan Chase executive today after the bank admitted violating a law that guarantees protections to servicemembers serving in harm’s way.
The giant financial institution failed to comply with the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, which provides active duty soldiers, who purchased a home prior to the start of their active duty, a 6 percent cap on their mortgage interest rate and any other fees while they are on active duty and for a year after they are discharged.
Stephanie Mudick, head of Consumer Practices at JPMorgan Chase & Co., admitted Chase failed to comply with all aspects of the law and apologized to soldiers for violating the guarantees set forth by the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act…
Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., ranking Democrat on the committee, wasn’t satisfied with the bank’s apology. “You just cannot apologize and give back people 70 bucks and to think this is over,” he said. “This is not over for them. But you’ve broken the law, you’ve ruined people’s lives and people ought to take responsibility for that…”
Chase is working on making things “whole as soon as possible,” vowing to return $2.4 million to servicemembers and their families and has taken care of 12 of the 18 foreclosures.
But as committee members pointed out, the $2.4 million settlement is miniscule compared with the funds at JPMorgan Chase’s disposal.
“Morgan Chase got $25 billion in TARP funds, so for them to settle for a mere pittance of $2 million based upon not even providing economic damages to these people, not providing pain and suffering damages not to mention what they did was illegal,” Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., said.
Chase screws over servicemembers
It’s good to know that after all that has happened in the last three years in regards to the banking business in this country, the only thing they still care about is making a quick buck. And if they have to make it off the backs of our servicemembers, oh well. One can only hope that the Congress does something serious about this. But seeing who is in control of the House, I doubt it’ll happen.