Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson has sent a letter to the Attorneys General of New York and Iowa (The Iowa AG is leading the negotiations) saying that any settlement that grants immunity to the banks on areas that have not been thoroughly investigated will be unacceptable to her:

In a letter sent to the attorneys general of New York and Iowa on Friday, Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson said that banks shouldn’t be protected from liability in connection with the nationwide foreclosure settlement.

Swanson said that banks should not be released from liability for mortgage securitization, securities claims or the use of a mortgage registry known as MERS, Bloomberg News reported.

“The banks should not be released from liability for conduct that has not been investigated and is not appropriately remedied in any settlement,” Swanson wrote, according to Bloomberg News.

State and federal officials are negotiating a settlement with the five largest mortgage services in the U.S. – Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo & Co., JP Morgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc. and Ally Financial Inc.

I think that it has become increasingly clear to people involved with the negotiations that Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller and the Obama administration are primarily interested in shielding the banks, and creating the appearance rather than the reality of accountability for the banksters.

Note also that Swanson has some serious consumer protection cred, as she was the one who uncovered the fraudulent and self dealing behavior of the National Arbitration Forum, and forced the organization out of consumer arbitration.

I don’t think that there has been an outbreak of ethics in the case of the banks, it’s just that the AGs who oppose this deal realize that not only are the settlement talks a corrupt endeavor, but they are a transparently corrupt endeavor, and they don’t think that they can defend it to the voters.