The AGs are seizing upon behavior which looks bad and may technically violate the law, but is hard to link directly to consumer injuries.
As with tobacco, the AGs are attacking a tragedy with many causes by going after the least popular actors in the drama. It’s good theater, but hard to see how beating up on the processing companies will prevent housing prices from finding their natural bottom. That will only occur when the economy recovers and a new wave of buyers bids on houses now occupied by people who can’t afford what they agreed to buy at the peak of the bubble.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/danielfisher/2012/02/07/mortgage-settlement-talks-look-like-tobacco-ii/