Banks’ $8.5 Billion Deal Kills Review That Never Saw Results

A foreclosure-review system that failed to compensate mistreated borrowers has been mostly scrapped in an $8.5 billion agreement with the largest U.S. mortgage servicers.

U.S. regulators’ deal yesterday with 10 mortgage servicers replaces a case-by-case assessment of flawed foreclosures that lasted almost two years. The Independent Foreclosure Review process -- agreed to by 14 servicers in a 2011 settlement -- has so far cost the servicers more than $1.5 billion in fees to consultants handling the cases.