The Federal Reserve fined five big banks a total of $35.1 million for issues related to financial-crisis-era mortgage servicing and foreclosures, while also moving them out of the penalty box for what it said was a “substantial improvement” in their practices, the Wall Street Journal reported. The fines relate to deficiencies that regulators saw in the wake of a meltdown in the U.S. housing market around the 2008-09 financial crisis. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. was fined $14 million; Morgan Stanley, $8 million; CIT Group Inc., $5.2 million; U.S. Bancorp, $4.4 million, and PNC Financial Services Group Inc., $3.5 million. The five firms had been slapped with enforcement actions in 2011 and 2012 for what the Fed said were “deficiencies in residential mortgage loan servicing and foreclosure processing.” The Fed said the firms have made “substantial improvement” in their practices.
