Talk:Escrow

French escrow vs. Anglo-American escrow

A word from a french reader passing by :

I don't feel that my incoming information deserves to be in the main article, but yet I find an interesting difference here between the french and anglo-american ways of thinking.

The english word later on adapted in France, gave in France the word «escroc», which means con artist.

That must certainly be that the French and anglo-americans don't consider money the same way, with guilt on one side and pride on the other.

(I don't have a wikipedia.org account but if you really with to know, i'm Sabin@fr.wikipedia.org)

Escrow funds do have a pretty bad reputation in western society. A lot of mezzanine funds and shady real estate trusts have been known to use escrow funds to launder and embezzle money. It's pretty easy to do - the moment the escrow account is not held by a "neutral third party" a massive conflict of interest arises. So, I think it's very intertesting and relevant that the French term means con artist. I'm not sure if it's wide spread enough to be mentioned on the article though. --DreamsReign 23:40, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

What percent of funds in the US economy is held in escrow? Other questions...

How can funds not earn interest while in escrow? Wouldn't one have to actually put currency into a vault in order to not earn interest? It seems impossible that any mortgage company can hold our funds and not benefit from it? Of course the homeowner doesnt' receive interest on the funds. Is there a governmment agency that monitors escrow funds? How does a mortgage company prove that they haven't used our funds for other purposes? I hope that some persons can expand the explanation of "escrow" to include the types of use of the funds/property that are allowed/monitored. Also the economy angle would be something to know. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Campchris (talk • contribs) 21:18, 2 April 2007 (UTC).

Regular deposit accounts are monitored by the Federal Reserve. I don't know if Escrow accounts are governed by the same laws, but it would stand to reason that they are. The Federal Reserve allows banks to re-invest over 90% of the money deposited in savings and other accounts. The interest rate that are set by the head of the Federal Reserve (used to be Allan Greenspan) affect how much money goes back out into the market in the form of loans. I am not sure if "Escrow Accounts" held by separate escrow agencies are governed by those same laws, but I would not be surprised if they were. Granted, escrow funds being physically held in a bank would almost definitely be in the market. It would be interesting to know the actual laws and practices involved here. After all, an escrow account is maintained for the life of the mortgage, often 30 years, to pay property taxes and insurance. Maybe I'm confusing who holds the escrow account through repayment as opposed to escrow regarding who holds the house while waiting for funding to go through. That could also be made clearer in the article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.8.68.248 (talk) 23:25, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Dispute Resolution

It should be noted that the "dispute resolution" is usually Binding Arbitration, which costs hundreds of dollars and is impractical for anything costing less than $5,000 - basically motor vehicles, real estate and rare collectibles. Some of the drawbacks include the following:

Arbitration is geared to settle business disputes, and the arbitrator implicitly relies on UCC which has many arcane and non-intutive rules.

There is no provision for the loser of the arbitration to repay the fees and other costs of arbitration.

Collecting such an award is problematic since there is no enforcement mechanism provided such as the posting of a bond, etc

Any changes to the agreement must be by mutual consent of the parties, and a crook will not agree to anything, and if he does beware of Bogus Escrow. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.161.244.193 (talk) 17:26, 16 July 2012 (UTC)

How to pronounce 'escrow'

Is it ESS-cro or e'SCRO? Can someone who knows please add an IPA pronunciation guide? Mrstonky (talk) 02:58, 16 July 2014 (UTC)

Well, it seems that either no-one does know IPA sufficiently well (including the present contributor); or, knowing, does not care enough to make answer. However, from personal knowledge, I can supply the response, that ESS-cro is the correct pronunciation. Nuttyskin (talk) 16:11, 31 July 2023 (UTC)

Stakeholder merge

I propose merging Stakeholder (law) into this article, as they seem to be different terms with the same meaning. Sondra.kinsey (talk) 13:39, 17 September 2017 (UTC)

  Y Merger complete. Klbrain (talk) 05:01, 29 December 2018 (UTC)

Long and confusing intro sentence

Does the intro sentence say that an escrow is either of

1. a contractual arrangement,
2. an account established by a broker,
3. a trust account held in the borrower's name ?

because some of the "or"s purpose are not clear within such a long sentence. --Jerome Potts (talk) 17:56, 31 December 2017 (UTC)

most generally, used with plentiful terms that conduct the rightful actions that follow

Needs clarification.