Thousands of US borrowers are facing crushing payment demands tied to mortgages thought long forgotten—financial zombies from decades past that suddenly resurface. The question haunting these homeowners is straightforward yet unsettling: how did we end up here?

The roots run deep. Back during the 2008 financial meltdown, banks and financial regulators made moves that would echo far beyond those crisis years. Those policy responses didn't just shape markets then—they created structural cracks in the lending system that took years to fully expose. Understanding what went wrong requires looking back at how the financial industry and oversight bodies actually handled that moment, and what unintended consequences their decisions left behind.