WASHINGTON- Today the Obama Administration announced an historic $25 billion joint federal-state fraud settlement with five of the nation’s largest banks over their flawed and fraudulent foreclosure practices. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-20) released the following statement:

“This settlement will help millions of homeowners across the country,” said Wasserman Schultz. “Thousands of local homeowners in South Florida who were hit especially hard by the housing crisis will finally see relief. As the president said, nearly 4 million people lost their homes to foreclosures because of risky lending by our nation’s banks. We must do all we can to help families who unfairly lost their homes, while working to keep others in their homes and avoid foreclosure. Finally, this settlement will ensure tough new homeowner protections going forward.”

Nearly 50 percent of homeowners in South Florida are sitting on underwater mortgages and foreclosures are rampant, according to a recent article in the Sun-Sentinel. The $25 billion will help some homeowners currently underwater in their home loans by reducing their monthly payments. The settlement will also help an additional 750,000 homeowners across the country who lost their homes to foreclosure.

The nation’s five largest banks - Wells Fargo, Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase, Ally Financial and Citigroup – are part of the largest joint state settlement in our nation’s history. All five banks will provide relief to current underwater borrowers.

For more information about the settlement and what it means for you, go to http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/mortgageservicingsettlement.