GAO SCRA Study

From where can I get to study in detail about the Government Accountability Office (GAO) which comes under the SCRA (Service members Civil Relief Act) of US government? So if anybody have some of the information regarding this, kindly enlist it here for me. Regards Sagar

I have to study on Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) of United States Government Accountability Office (GAO). So someone suggested me for this site, so can anybody provide link to get information about Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) of United States Government Accountability Office (GAO)?

[pawan]

As you are looking for information about Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) of United States Government Accountability Office (GAO), so here are following information:

Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) of United States Government Accountability Office (GAO)

Information on Mortgage Protections and Related Education Efforts:

What GAO Found:
The number of servicemembers with mortgages eligible for Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) mortgage protections is unknown because servicers have not collected this information in a comprehensive manner. Based on the limited and nongeneralizeable information that GAO obtained from the three mortgage servicers and the credit union, a small percentage of the total loan portfolios were identified as eligible for SCRA protections. Two large servicers had loan-level data on delinquency rates. For those identified as SCRA-eligible, rates ranged from 16 to 20 percent and from 4 to 8 percent for their other military borrowers. Delinquencies at the credit union were under 1 percent. Some servicemembers appeared to have benefitted from the SCRA interest rate cap of 6 percent, but many eligible borrowers had apparently not taken advantage of this protection. For example, at one institution 82 percent of those who could benefit from the interest rate caps still had mortgage rates above 6 percent. The data also were insufficient to assess the impact of SCRA protections after servicemembers left active duty, although one institutions limited data indicated that military borrowers had a higher risk of delinquency in the first year after leaving active duty. But those with SCRA protections also were more likely to cure delinquencies during this period than the institutions other military borrowers. Given the many limitations to the data, these results should only be considered illustrative. Most of these institutions indicated that they made recent changes to better identify SCRA-eligible borrowers and improve the accuracy of the data.

The Department of Defense (DOD) has partnerships with many federal agencies and nonprofit organizations to help provide financial education to servicemembers, but limited information on the effectiveness of these partnerships exists. DOD and its partners have focused on promoting general financial fitness rather than providing information about SCRA protections. But some partners provide SCRA outreach and support to servicemembers. For example, the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection has an Office of Servicemember Affairs that provides SCRA outreach to servicemembers and mortgage servicers responsible for complying with the act. Although stakeholders GAO interviewed generally offered favourable views of these partnerships, some said obtaining additional information about educational resources and partnership performance could improve programs. However, DOD has not undertaken any formal evaluations of the effectiveness of these partnerships. This finding is consistent with GAOs July 2012 review of SCRA education efforts, which found that DOD had not assessed the effectiveness of its educational methods and therefore could not ensure it reached servicemembers in the most effective manner. GAO recommended in July 2012 that DOD assess the effectiveness of its efforts to educate servicemembers on
SCRA to determine better ways for making servicemembers (including reservists) aware of SCRA rights and benefits. In response to that recommendation, as of December 2013, DOD was reviewing the results of its recent surveys on the overall financial well-being of military families and planned to use these results to adjust training and education for SCRA, as appropriate. GAOs current finding that many servicemembers did not appear to be taking advantage of the SCRA interest rate cap appears to reaffirm that DODs SCRA education efforts could be improved and View GAO that an assessment of the effectiveness of these efforts is still warranted.

Limited Data Suggest SCRA Benefits Some Servicemembers but Impact of Protection
Periods Unknown:
The limited data we obtained from four financial institutions showed that a small fraction of their borrowers qualified for SCRA protections. Our analysis suggests that SCRA-protected borrowers generally had higher rates of delinquency, although this pattern was not consistent across the institutions in our sample and cannot be generalized.
However, SCRA protections may benefit some servicemembers. SCRA-protected borrowers at two of the three institutions from which we had usable data were more likely to cure their mortgage delinquencies than other military borrowers. Some servicemembers also appeared to have benefitted from the SCRA interest rate cap. Financial institutions we contacted could not provide sufficient data to assess the impact of different protection periods, but our analysis indicates that mortgage delinquencies appeared to increase in the first year after active duty.

Actual Number of Servicemembers Eligible for SCRA Mortgage Protections Unknown:
Based on our interviews and the data sources we reviewed, the number of servicemembers with mortgages eligible for SCRA protections is not known because servicers have not systematically collected this information, although limited data are available. Federal banking regulators do not generally require financial institutions to report information on SCRA-eligible loans or on the number and size of loans that they service for servicemembers.

SCRA compliance requires that financial institutions check whether a borrower is an active duty servicemember and therefore eligible for protection under SCRA before initiating a foreclosure proceeding. However, institutions are not required to conduct these checks on loans in the rest of their portfolio, and two told us that they do not routinely check a borrowers military status unless the borrower is delinquent on the mortgage. Consequently, the number of SCRA-eligible loans that these two institutions reported to us only includes delinquent borrowers and those who reported their SCRA

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