Warren Seeks Answers on ‘Zombie’ Second Mortgages

December 17, 2025, 6:47 PM UTC

Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, requested records Tuesday on loans forgiven under a $25 billion national mortgage settlement. The agreement addressed foreclosure and other mortgage abuses by banks following the 2008 financial crisis.

Warren’s request to the official monitoring banks’ compliance with the settlement cited recent Bloomberg News stories that documented instances of homeowners getting blindsided by huge bills on long-forgotten second mortgages. In some cases, they had received tax documents showing the loans had been canceled years earlier.

The loans were sold to debt buyers for pennies on the dollar. As the housing market recovered, some collections ...

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