California Says Administrator Will Begin Foreclosure Refunds

A national administrator will begin processing refunds for California borrowers who lost their homes to foreclosure as part of a $25 billion nationwide mortgage- foreclosure settlement.

Claim forms will be sent to about 432,584 California borrowers whose homes were foreclosed from Jan. 1, 2008, to Dec. 31, 2011, and may be eligible for a settlement payment, California Attorney General Kamala Harris said today in an e- mailed statement.

The national settlement administrator mailed notification postcards to eligible borrowers last week, Harris said. The deadline for all claims is Jan. 18.

The refunds stem from the $25 billion settlement that Harris and officials with 48 other states reached with Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC), Citigroup Inc. (C) and Ally Financial Inc. (ALLY) to end a probe of abusive foreclosure practices stemming from the collapse of the housing bubble.

To contact the reporter on this story: Joel Rosenblatt in San Francisco at jrosenblatt@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net