New York sued three major banks on Friday, accusing them of fraud in their use of an electronic mortgage database that he said resulted in deceptive and illegal practices, including false documents in foreclosure proceedings. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/04/business/new-york-suing-3-banks-over-mortgage-database.html The lawsuit was filed against Bank of America, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase in New York State Supreme Court in Brooklyn. “The mortgage industry created MERS (Mortgage Electronic Registration System) to allow financial institutions to evade county recording fees, avoid the need to publicly record mortgage transfers and facilitate the rapid sale and securitization of mortgages en masse,” “By creating this bizarre and complex end-around of the traditional public recording system,” The lawsuit asserts, the banks saved $2 billion in recording fees. The lawsuit asserts the database is inaccurate and seeks to stop the banks from filing foreclosure actions through MERS and executing false or defective mortgage assignments in New York foreclosure proceedings.