Showing posts with label securities. Show all posts
Showing posts with label securities. Show all posts
Friday, July 1, 2011
Countrywide Must Still Face MBIA Fraud Claim, New York Appeals Court Rules
Another Fraud claim against BoA. This time by “ … a sophisticated counter- party that cannot sustain a fraud claim.” according to BoA. Why, just why not? (by Joe Vera)
Countrywide Must Still Face MBIA Fraud Claim, New York Appeals Court Rules
By Karen Freifeld – Jun 30, 2011
11:42 AM PT
Bank of America Corp. (BAC) and its Countrywide Financial Corp. unit must face a fraud claim brought by bond insurer MBIA Insurance Corp., an appeals court ruled.
The New York court today upheld an April 2010 trial-court denial of Countrywide’s motion to dismiss the claim against it in the 2008 suit. MBIA alleges that Countrywide fraudulently obtained insurance on billions of dollars of mortgage-backed securities.
MBIA claims the lender falsely represented loan-to-value ratios, debt-to-income ratios and borrowers’ FICO scores; provided prospectuses that falsely represented loans were made in compliance with Countrywide’s underwriting standards; and offered false, misleading or inflated ratings for the loans, according to the decision.
“Because MBIA alleges misrepresentations of present fact, and not future intent, made with the intent to induce MBIA to insure the securitizations, the fraud claim survives,” Associate Justice Rosalyn H. Richter wrote.
MBIA contends that if it had known the representations were false, it would never have guaranteed the notes and suffered losses. As a result of defaults, MBIA alleges, it has been forced to make billions of dollars in claims payments on the insurance agreements, according to the decision.
The appeals court also upheld the dismissal of a negligent- misrepresentation claim in the case. It dismissed entirely a claim for breach of implied duty of good faith and fair dealing, which the lower court narrowed.
Bank Statement
“We continue to believe MBIA is a sophisticated counter- party that cannot sustain a fraud claim, and we continue to have the ability to raise that point with the court at the summary- judgment phase,” Shirley Norton, a spokeswoman for Bank of America, said in an e-mailed statement.
Norton added the bank is pleased the appeals court confirmed the dismissal of the negligent-misrepresentation claim and dismissed the good-faith and fair-dealing claim.
MBIA spokesman Kevin Brown said in an e-mailed statement that the insurer was pleased the appeals court “upheld MBIA’s right to pursue fraud claims against Countrywide, particularly in light of the growing public recognition of fraud and misrepresentations perpetrated by Countrywide and other industry participants.”
The MBIA-Countrywide case isn’t part of the $8.5 billion proposed settlement by Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America with investors in Countrywide Financial mortgage debt, according to Kevin Heine, a spokesman for Bank of New York Mellon, the trustee for securities in the proposed deal.
The appeal is MBIA Insurance Corp. v. Countrywide Home Loans Inc., New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department (Manhattan). The lower-court case is MBIA Insurance v. Countrywide, 6028245/2008, New York state Supreme Court (Manhattan).
Friday, June 24, 2011
Get Ready for the Great MERS Whitewash Bill
Congress may pardon MERS retroactively. Don’t say it won’t happen. Doesn’t any politician care about the rule of law. (by Joe Vera)
Get Ready for the Great MERS Whitewash Bill
By: John Carney Senior Editor, CNBC.com
Congress comes back into session next week, it may consider measures intended to bolster the legal status of a controversial bank owned electronic mortgage registration system that contains three out of every five mortgages in the country.
The system is known as MERS, the acronym for a private company called Mortgage Electronic Registry Systems. Set up by banks in the 1997, MERS is a system for tracking ownership of home loans as they move from mortgage originator through the financial pipeline to the trusts set up when mortgage securities are sold.
The system has come under scrutiny by critics who charge MERS with facilitating slipshod practices. Recently, lawyers have filed lawsuits claiming that banks owe states billions of dollars for mortgage recording fees they avoided by using MERS.
If courts rule against MERS, the damage could be catastrophic. Here’s how the AP tallies up the potential damage:
Assuming each mortgage it tracks had been resold, and re-recorded, just once, MERS would have saved the industry $2.4 billion in recording costs, R.K. Arnold, the firm’s chief executive officer, testified in 2009. It’s not unusual for a mortgage to be resold a dozen times or more.
The California suit alone could cost MERS $60 billion to $120 billion in damages and penalties from unpaid recording fees.
The liabilities are astronomical because, according to laws in California and many other states, penalties between $5,000 and $10,000 can be imposed each time a recording fee went unpaid. Because the suits are filed as false claims, the law stipulates that the penalties can then be tripled.
Perhaps even more devastatingly, some critics say that sloppiness at MERS—which has just 40 full-time employees—may have botched chain of title for many mortgages. They say that MERS lacks standing to bring foreclosure actions, and the botched chain of title may cast doubts on whether anyone has clear enough ownership of some mortgages to foreclose on a defaulting borrower. The problems with MERS system led JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon to stop using MERS for foreclosures in 2008.
Now it appears that Congress may attempt to prevent any MERS meltdown from occurring. MERS is owned by all the biggest banks, and th the value of their bonds sink because of doubts about the ownership of the underlying mortgages.
So it looks like the stage may be set for Congress to pass a bill that would limit MERS exposure on the recording fee issue and perhaps retroactively legitimate mortgage transfers conducted through MERS private database.
Self-styled consumer advocate Neil Garfield says the legislation is already being drafted:
After years of negative judicial decisions about the use of a straw-man on mortgages, MERS was about to lose its existence as well as its credibility. But now all of that is set to change as Wall Street money is pouring into the coffers of those who are receptive (i.e., almost everyone in Congress). The legislation is already being drafted under the interstate commerce clause to ratify MERS and everything it did retroactively. It appears that the Obama administration is ready to pardon all the securitization deviants by signing this bill into law. This information is corroborated by several people who are in sensitive positions — persons who would be the first to know such proposals. Fortunately, there are some people in Washington who have a conscience and do not want to see this happen.
Garfield is overstating things a bit. In truth, the results of the legal challenges to MERS have been mixed. But it is very plausible that the banks might want to put to rest any ongoing uncertainty about the legality of MERS. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Congress manages to pass a bill that bails MERS out of its legal issues.
Get Ready for the Great MERS Whitewash Bill
By: John Carney Senior Editor, CNBC.com
Congress comes back into session next week, it may consider measures intended to bolster the legal status of a controversial bank owned electronic mortgage registration system that contains three out of every five mortgages in the country.
The system is known as MERS, the acronym for a private company called Mortgage Electronic Registry Systems. Set up by banks in the 1997, MERS is a system for tracking ownership of home loans as they move from mortgage originator through the financial pipeline to the trusts set up when mortgage securities are sold.
The system has come under scrutiny by critics who charge MERS with facilitating slipshod practices. Recently, lawyers have filed lawsuits claiming that banks owe states billions of dollars for mortgage recording fees they avoided by using MERS.
If courts rule against MERS, the damage could be catastrophic. Here’s how the AP tallies up the potential damage:
Assuming each mortgage it tracks had been resold, and re-recorded, just once, MERS would have saved the industry $2.4 billion in recording costs, R.K. Arnold, the firm’s chief executive officer, testified in 2009. It’s not unusual for a mortgage to be resold a dozen times or more.
The California suit alone could cost MERS $60 billion to $120 billion in damages and penalties from unpaid recording fees.
The liabilities are astronomical because, according to laws in California and many other states, penalties between $5,000 and $10,000 can be imposed each time a recording fee went unpaid. Because the suits are filed as false claims, the law stipulates that the penalties can then be tripled.
Perhaps even more devastatingly, some critics say that sloppiness at MERS—which has just 40 full-time employees—may have botched chain of title for many mortgages. They say that MERS lacks standing to bring foreclosure actions, and the botched chain of title may cast doubts on whether anyone has clear enough ownership of some mortgages to foreclose on a defaulting borrower. The problems with MERS system led JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon to stop using MERS for foreclosures in 2008.
Now it appears that Congress may attempt to prevent any MERS meltdown from occurring. MERS is owned by all the biggest banks, and th the value of their bonds sink because of doubts about the ownership of the underlying mortgages.
So it looks like the stage may be set for Congress to pass a bill that would limit MERS exposure on the recording fee issue and perhaps retroactively legitimate mortgage transfers conducted through MERS private database.
Self-styled consumer advocate Neil Garfield says the legislation is already being drafted:
After years of negative judicial decisions about the use of a straw-man on mortgages, MERS was about to lose its existence as well as its credibility. But now all of that is set to change as Wall Street money is pouring into the coffers of those who are receptive (i.e., almost everyone in Congress). The legislation is already being drafted under the interstate commerce clause to ratify MERS and everything it did retroactively. It appears that the Obama administration is ready to pardon all the securitization deviants by signing this bill into law. This information is corroborated by several people who are in sensitive positions — persons who would be the first to know such proposals. Fortunately, there are some people in Washington who have a conscience and do not want to see this happen.
Garfield is overstating things a bit. In truth, the results of the legal challenges to MERS have been mixed. But it is very plausible that the banks might want to put to rest any ongoing uncertainty about the legality of MERS. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Congress manages to pass a bill that bails MERS out of its legal issues.
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