Tag Archives: Settlements

The bank stated that it “has responded, and continues to respond, to requests from these agencies seeking information regarding the origination, underwriting and securitization of residential mortgages, including sub-prime mortgages.”

New Jersey federal court documents filed earlier this week revealed that Prudential Insurance Co. has moved to settle its ongoing lawsuits with Bank of America NA, Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc., First Franklin Financial Group, and a number of lenders in the mortgage industry. The suits, which were first filed in March 2013, alleged Bank of America and others knowingly sold Prudential $2.1 billion in low-quality mortgage-backed securities—and made false statements about them.

This week, First Horizon National Corp. announced that First Tennessee, the regional bank for First Horizon, reached an agreement with HUD and the U.S. Department of Justice to settle claims related the mortgage business the company sold in 2008. As part of the settlement, First Tennessee has committed to make a cash payment of $212.5 million.

Ocwen also reported that an additional 284,089 borrowers had either started a trial modification or were offered or approved for a trial modification by the end of Q4. These were Ocwen's self-reported numbers and they have not been credited by the monitor as of yet.

The DOJ filed a motion to have the lawsuit dismissed in May 2014, and Judge Beryl A. Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia accepted the motion, claiming the plaintiff did not have sufficient grounds to sue the Justice Department.

According to the class-action lawsuit, which was originally filed in September 2008, the underwriters made "material misstatements and omissions of material facts" in the offering documents, which was in violation of the Securities Act.

Wells Fargo has agreed to pay more than $4 million in penalties in redress over allegations of misconduct related to loan qualifications and an illegal home equity product offered by a former affiliate to borrowers in New York.

The Department of Justice sued S&P in February 2013, alleging that the credit ratings agency "knowingly and with the intent to defraud, devised, participated in, and executed a scheme to defraud investors" in collateralized debt obligations and residential mortgage-backed securities between 2004 and 2007.

Both institutions had a rough year in 2014 on the regulatory side of things. In July, Citigroup settled with the Department of Justice for $7 billion over the sale of toxic mortgage-backed securities. A month later, Bank of America settled with the DOJ for a record $16.65 billion over similar matters. The money paid out in penalties and consumer relief in 2014 took a toll on year-end net incomes for both institutions.

Southfield, Michigan-based lender GTL Investments, Inc., recently agreed to pay $4.2 million to settle claims regarding the origination of federally-backed mortgage loans that were not properly underwritten, according to an announcement from U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan Barbara McQuade.