US House Democrat Wants Subpoenas Of Six Mortgage Cos.

A U.S. House lawmaker is pushing for subpoenas of six mortgage companies, accusing them of failing to provide documents about their foreclosure processes.

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D., Md.), the top Democrat on the Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee, sought the subpoenas in a letter sent late Tuesday to the panel's chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.).

Cummings is seeking to step up the committee's probe into allegations that several major lenders engaged in shoddy foreclosure practices, an issue that has already sparked numerous investigations at the federal and state level.

In February, Cummings asked for information from 10 companies about their foreclosure practices. However, six of those companies have provided no documents to Congress, Cummings said. They are: Bank of America Corp. (BAC), Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC), U.S. Bancorp (USB), SunTrust Banks Inc. (STI), MetLife Inc. (MET) and. PHH Corp. (PHH).

"The banks have admitted wrongdoing, and yet they are now refusing to provide Congress with documents that are critical to our investigation," Cummings said in a statement.

Issa will ask Cummings to "provide additional information about this investigation before deciding on the most appropriate next step," said spokesman Frederick Hill. He added that foreclosure problems are "an issue of clear bipartisan concern."

The banks either declined to comment or couldn't be reached. In a letter sent to Cummings, Wells Fargo said the documents requested "are extraordinarily voluminous and they contain confidential and proprietary information." U.S. Bancorp said its reviews of its foreclosure procedures are confidential but have not identified any instances "where a borrower was wrongfully evicted from their home or was charged improper fees."

MetLife said it would provide some documents only if it received a subpoena. PHH said the documents requested were produced by outside attorneys and were subject to attorney-client privilege. Bank of America provided no response, according to Cummings' office.

-By Alan Zibel, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9263; alan.zibel@dowjones.com

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