Bank of America announced Wednesday that it would take a whopping $20 billion hit to put the fallout from the subprime bust behind it and satisfy claims from angry investors. But for its peers, the settlements may just be starting.
Heavyweight investors that forced Bank of America to hand over billions to cover the cost of home loans that later defaulted are now setting their sights on companies like JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo, raising the prospect of more multibillion-dollar deals.
“Bank of America has charted a path that our clients expect other banks will follow,” said Kathy D. Patrick, the lawyer who represented BlackRock, Pimco, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and 19 other investors who hold the soured mortgage securities assembled by the Bank of America.
Ms. Patrick’s clients are seeking $8.5 billion from Bank of America — a settlement that needs a judge’s approval and could still face objections from investors seeking a better deal. A date to review the blueprint has been set for Nov. 17 with Justice Barbara R. Kapnick in New York Supreme Court.
All told, analysts say the financial services industry faces potential losses of tens of billions from future claims — real money even by the eye-popping standards of the nation’s biggest banks. Indeed, even that $20 billion announced Wednesday will not be enough to completely stanch the bleeding at Bank of America — it says litigation over troubled mortgages could cost it another $5 billion in the future.
The proposed settlement is more than just another financial blow to a company staggering from the collapse of the mortgage bubble. It also represents a major acknowledgment of just how flawed the mortgage process became in the giddy years leading up to the financial crisis of 2008, typified by the excesses at Countrywide Financial, the subprime mortgage lender Bank of America acquired in 2008.
Ms. Patrick and her clients claim that Countrywide created securities from mortgages originated with little, if any, proof of assets or income. Then, they argue, Bank of America did not properly service these mortgages, failed to heed pleas for help from homeowners teetering on the brink of foreclosure and frequently misplaced documents.
Most of the loans in the pools covered by the settlement were underwritten at the height of the mortgage mania: in 2005, 2006 and 2007. But with borrowers soon unable to meet their monthly payments, defaults soared.
For the banking industry, the reckoning could not come at a worse time. On Wall Street, trading revenue has been devastated by the economic uncertainty in Europe, the anemic recovery in the United States, and the stock market swoon of the last two months.
What’s more, new regulations have already taken a big bite out of profits. Despite a modest amount of relief on Wednesday, when the Federal Reserve completed new rules governing debit card swipe fees, the banks stand to lose billions when the regulations take effect next month.
If all this were not enough, further weakness in the housing and job markets has reduced lending by the banks to businesses and consumers alike, cutting yet one more source of profits.
Nevertheless, investors appeared to endorse the proposed settlement, with Bank of America shares rising nearly 3 percent, to $11.14, a move mirrored by shares of other big financials.
Some experts said the settlement could prove good news for consumers and the broader economy, speeding the foreclosure process for hundreds of thousands of homeowners while potentially making it easier to obtain modifications of existing mortgages.
By providing a template for cleaning up past claims and setting standards for future practices, the settlement could make it easier for banks to bundle and sell mortgages again, a business that has been all but dead since the financial crisis.
“That is important for providing funding for people to buy homes, grow their businesses and create jobs,” said Michael S. Barr, a former assistant Treasury secretary who now teaches law at the University of Michigan.
The accord does not resolve an investigation by all 50 state attorneys general into allegations of mortgage service abuses by Bank of America and other major lenders that could ultimately cost the industry billions more in fines and penalties. Nor does it cover liability from soured home equity loans or bonds the bank created with mortgages from lenders other than Countrywide.
Gretchen Morgenson contributed reporting.
Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=191b3cb0fc65f09932a69666c8bf44e9
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