The Federal Reserve said on Thursday it wants to see a uniform set of national standards developed for mortgage servicing companies and for handling foreclosures to avoid abuses of consumers.

In a statement filed with two House of Representatives financial services subcommittees, the Fed said it also was staying in close touch with the Justice Department on negotiations with five big banks that are trying to settle over deficiencies in mortgage servicing and foreclosure practices.

Federal regulators and state attorneys general have been investigating bank mortgage and foreclosure practices that came to light last year, including the use of "robo-signers" to sign hundreds of unread foreclosure documents a day.

There have been suggestions that banks should be forced to do principal writedowns for some troubled mortgages or possibly made to pay into a fund to help distressed borrowers, and also clean up their foreclosure practices.

The Fed noted that it and other regulators had issued enforcement actions against 14 mortgage servicers in April to make them address deficiencies in how they operate.

"The Federal Reserve also indicated, at the time the enforcement actions were issued, that it believes monetary sanctions in these cases are appropriate and plans to announce monetary penalties," the statement said. (Reuters)