Search terms that produce 400 or more case numbers when querying the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas online database for the term (e.g. “Deutsche Bank”) as a plaintiff in civil cases filed so far in 2007:
- “Deutsche Bank” — 1,400 hits
- “Wells Fargo” — 1,257
- “US Bank” — 1,065
- “JP Morgan” and “Chase” combined — 687
- “Citi” — 638
- “Bank of New York” — 594
- “HSBC” — 544
- “Homecomings” — 443
- “Sky Bank” — 421
- “Countrywide” — 414
Remember that the foreclosing lender isn’t often the same institution that originated the mortgage in the first place. Deutsche Bank files foreclosures almost exclusively as the trustee or servicing agent for other lenders and/or mortgage-backed investment pools. Wells Fargo and US Bank (and others) are often in the same role, even though they also originate a lot of subprime loans themselves.
Some of the the county’s biggest subprime lenders, like Argent Mortgage, file very few foreclosures themselves, even though hundreds of their mortgages are in foreclosure at any given moment.
Also remember that a single foreclosure case often has multiple plaintiffs.
