As the Pigford I Settlement comes to a close: The Network of Black Farm Groups and Advocates stresses its positive impact on society

ATLANTA, April 26, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Pigford consent decree on April 14, 1999 marked a productive first step toward compensating thousands of black farmers who faced decades of discrimination from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) over a 16-year period. Fourteen years later, as the commitments in the settlement are complete, the Network of Black Farm Groups and Advocates claim the lawsuit succeeded.

"The Pigford settlement righted some of the racial injustice and wrong-doings from the USDA that have been definitively documented throughout history. It is not an easy task, and there will certainly be bumps in the road," said Ralph Paige, Executive Director of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund.  "But no compensation from this lawsuit can account for the loss of thousands of acres of Black-owned farmland valued at billions of dollars. At the same time, we can't overlook the encouraging progress made to remedy injustices faced by thousands of Black farmers who told bitter truths of unfair treatments in the past. When we overcome racial injustices like this, society benefits as a whole."  

The Pigford settlement spurred the USDA to place new emphasis on moving beyond its many past mistakes and welcoming Black and other minority farmers as its clients and partners. Clearly, the USDA is on the right track to righting these wrongs.

For more information on the history of injustice, view this recent piece on The Nation.

NETWORK OF BLACK FARM GROUPS AND ADVOCATES

Arkansas Land and Farm Development Corporation
Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association
Federation of Southern Cooperatives/ Land Assistance Fund
Land Loss Prevention Project
Mississippi Family Farmers Association
Oklahoma Black Historical Research Project
Rural Advancement Fund
United Farmers, USA

Contact:
Heather Gray
404 765 0991
heathergray@federation.coop

SOURCE Network of Black Farm Groups and Advocates

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Two Democrats ask Fed, OCC for meeting on foreclosure settlement

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two Democratic lawmakers on Monday stepped up their scrutiny of how regulators handled a botched review of past home mortgage foreclosures, requesting a meeting with regulatory officials as they seek further information about the reviews.

The Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency reached settlements worth about $9.3 billion with 13 banks earlier this year to end case-by-case reviews of whether they had wrongly seized homes.

Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who sits on the banking committee, and Representative Elijah Cummings of Maryland, who is the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, asked regulators for more information in January about the reviews after the settlements were announced.

The lawmakers said the public needed to know more about the process in order to trust it.

Unsatisfied with the response they received from the Fed and the OCC on Friday, the pair on Monday demanded further information and a personal briefing on the status of their requests.

"Criminal activity should not be shielded by regulators as if it constitutes proprietary information or trade secrets," the lawmakers wrote. "We continue to believe transparency is critical around the operations of the review and settlement processes."

The settlements proved controversial because they ended reviews that had already cost the banks some $2 billion but had not yet resulted in any relief to consumers. Banks including Bank of America Corp, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Wells Fargo were part of the reviews.

The agencies to date have provided little information about what those reviews produced and how the consultants who performed the reviews were monitored. Cummings and Warren had sought that information.

The $2 billion in fees amounts to nearly $20,000 per file, a "staggering amount," Warren and Cummings said.

"It is nearly five times the average payout that will go to homeowners as part of the settlement," they wrote.

Under the settlement, borrowers who were foreclosed on in 2009 and 2010 will receive between a few hundred dollars and $125,000, depending on the issues they dealt with.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry said in their letter on Friday that the Fed and the OCC plan to make additional information public, such as the findings of reviews and the costs associated with them.

The agencies are in the process of analyzing some of that data for upcoming reports on the implementation of the settlement agreements, Bernanke and Curry said.

They also said that Fed and OCC staff could provide a briefing for the lawmakers' staffs to discuss the settlements.

Warren and Cummings said on Monday that they wanted to attend the briefing, and they asked to hold the meeting on April 9 after lawmakers return from the Easter recess.

(Reporting By Emily Stephenson and Aruna Viswanatha)

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