The ripple effects of the financial crisis continue to take their toll on banks, as reckless lending during the bonanza years catches up to them. Friday after the closing bell, and ahead of a Labor Day weekend, the Federal Housing Finance Agency confirmed it was suing 17 different financial institutions for misrepresenting the quality of mortgage backed securities sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Affecting major banks like Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, the suit alleges negligent misrepresentation, securities laws violations, and common fraud as they issued, bundled, and sold MBS to government sponsored enterprises.
The FHFA is not looking for repurchases, but rather is looking to retrieve losses on Fannie and Freddie’s loan portfolios. JPMorgan is being sued over $33 billion in securities, while Bank of America-Merrill Lynch is on the hook for almost $25 billion, and the Vampire Squid, Goldman Sachs, is in for $11.1 billion.
