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FHFA Resolves Additional RMBS Suits
Recently, the FHFA announced the resolution of several lawsuits it filed against private label securities issuers. In 2011, the FHFA sued 18 financial institutions alleging federal securities law violations, and in some cases common law fraud, with regard to the sale of private label residential mortgage backed securities to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. On March 26, one financial institution agreed to pay $9.33 billion—including cash payments and a purchase of securities from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—to resolve a case filed against the institution and cases filed against two other institutions it had acquired. On March 21, a separate institution agreed to pay $885 million to resolve the FHFA’s allegations. The FHFA has claims remaining in seven of the 18 suits it filed.
Senate Banking Leaders Release Draft Housing Finance Reform Bill
On March 16, Senate Banking Chairman Tim Johnson (D-SD) and Ranking Member Mike Crapo (R-ID) released long-awaited draft legislation to end the government’s conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and reform the housing finance system. The Senators also released a summary of the proposal and a section-by-section analysis. The bill adopts many of the principles originally outlined in bipartisan legislation introduced last year by Senators Mark Warner (D-VA) and Bob Corker (R-TN). Like the Warner-Corker bill, the leadership proposal would create a Federal Mortgage Insurance Corporation (FMIC), modeled in part after the FDIC and intended to provide an explicit government backstop for certain MBS. The government backstop would sit behind private investors required to hold at least 10% capital on FMIC-issued securities. FMIC losses in turn would be backed by a reinsurance fund. The FMIC also would (i) oversee a new mortgage securitization platform; (ii) supervise guarantors, aggregators, servicers, and private mortgage insurers; and (iii) collect fees dedicated to support affordable housing and allocated among the Housing Trust Fund, the Capital Magnet Fund, and a new Market Access Fund. Under the bill servicers, aggregators, and others would be subject to capital requirements now only applicable to banks. The bill would establish a 5% down payment requirement for borrowers, 3.5% for first time borrowers. The bill also would create a jointly owned small lender mutual intended to provide small lenders access to the secondary market. The leadership’s small lender mutual would be open to more banks—any depository institution with up to $500 billion in assets—than the Warner-Corker plan would allow. The Committee is expected to markup the legislation in the coming weeks.
Financial Reform Group Files Suit Challenging Largest DOJ RMBS Settlement
On February 10, Better Markets, a public interest non-profit organization, announced the filing of a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia challenging a November 2012 settlement obtained by the DOJ and several state attorneys general, which resolved allegations that a large bank and certain institutions it acquired misled investors in connection with the packaging, marketing, sale, and issuance of certain RMBS. The suit claims, in short, that by resolving the allegations through a civil settlement without seeking any judicial review and approval, the DOJ violated the Constitution’s separation of powers doctrine. In addition, the suit claims, the DOJ’s failure to commence a civil action (i) violated the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989, and (ii) constituted an arbitrary and capricious action in violation of the Administrative Procedures Act. The complaint asks the court to declare the agreement unlawful and invalid and to issue an injunction that would prevent the DOJ from enforcing the agreement until the agreement is reviewed and approved by a court.
FHFA Recaps RMBS Litigation Following Latest Settlement
On January 2, the FHFA announced that it has obtained nearly $8 billion in connection with its RMBS litigation initiative. In 2011, the FHFA filed lawsuits against 18 financial institutions involving allegations of securities law violations and, in some instances, fraud in the sale of private label securities to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The total recovered to date includes a recently announced $1.9 billion settlement, the FHFA’s sixth RMBS settlement thus far.
Massachusetts AG Obtains Another RMBS Settlement
On December 30, Massachusetts Attorney General (AG) Martha Coakley announced the state’s sixth settlement related to allegedly unlawful RMBS practices, which resulted from the AG’s ongoing review of subprime mortgage securitization practices in Massachusetts. The most recent agreement requires an underwriting firm to pay a total of $17.3 million, which includes $11.3 million to be dedicated to compensate government entities that had invested with the Massachusetts Pension Reserve Investment Management Board and $6 million to be paid to the state.
New Jersey AG Files RMBS Suit
On December 18, New Jersey’s Acting Attorney General John Hoffman announced a lawsuit against a mortgage securitizer and related firms for allegedly violating state securities law by making fraudulent misrepresentations and omissions to promote the sale of RMBS to private investors. Specifically, the suit alleges that the firms misrepresented in the offering documents that mortgages underlying certain securities offered over a 12-month period in 2006-7: (i) were in substantial compliance with the underwriting standards of the originators of the loans; (ii) were originated "in accordance with accepted practices and prudent guidelines;" and (iii) did not have a negative equity. The suit alleges that the firms’ traders warned about the high risks of certain types of loans being securitized. The state claims that after the securities were issued, delinquency rates in the underlying pools increased substantially, and resulted in significantly reduced distributions to investors and write downs in the principal of underlying loans. The New Jersey AG is at least the second state attorney general to file such a suit as part of the federal-state RMBS)Working Group. New York Attorney General Schneiderman filed similar suits under New York law last year.
New York Appellate Court Resolves Trial Court Split Over Statute Of Limitations For Repurchase Suits
On December 19, the Supreme Court of New York, Appellate Division, held that the statute of limitations on claims related to mortgage repurchase obligations begins to run as of the date of closing of the loan purchase agreement. Ace Securities Corp v. DB Structured Prods., Inc., No. 650980/12, 2013 WL 6670379 (N.Y. App. Div. Dec. 19, 2013). The decision resolves a split at the trial court level that resulted from diverging opinions issued earlier this year, in which one court held that the clock on claims by trustees that a securitizer breached its contract by failing to repurchase began to run on the date the representations were made (i.e. the date the pooling and servicing agreement closed), while another court held that the statute did not begin to run until the securitizers improperly rejected the trustee’s repurchase demand, i.e. the breach is the failure to comply, not the date of the representation. On appeal of the latter holding, the court rejected the trustee’s and investors’ argument that the statute does not begin to run until the lender refused to cure or repurchase the defective loans, and held that the claims accrued on the closing date of the pooling and servicing agreement, at which time any alleged breach of the representations and warranties contained therein occurred.
SDNY Holds 2005 SEC Rule Change Did Not Alter Directors' Potential MBS Liability
On December 10, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York held that the SEC’s promulgation of Rule 430B in 2005—which, among other things, broadened the category of disclosures that can be made in prospectus supplements rather than post-effective amendments to registration statements—did not alter the "liability date" for Section 11 liability for individuals who sign registration statements in the context of the shelf registration process. Fed.Hous. Fin. Agency v. HSBC N. Am. Holdings Inc., No. 1:11-cv-06201 (S.D.N.Y. Dec. 10, 2013). The ruling comes in the consolidated federal cases brought by the FHFA alleging numerous institutions misled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in connection with the packaging, marketing, sale and issuance of certain RMBS. The FHFA suits also named numerous individuals as a “control person[s]” under Section 15 of the Securities Act of 1933, or as directors or signing officers under Section 11 of the Securities Act. In response to a motion filed by more than 90 directors who signed the original registration statements but not the subsequent prospectus supplements, the court explained that Rule 430B deems newly disclosed information to be included in the registration statement, and Section 11 creates liability for signers whenever “any part of the registration statement, when such part became effective, contained an untrue statement of material fact or [omission].” The court interpreted the rule to mean that a prospectus supplement containing information representing a fundamental change in the information provided in the registration statement creates Section 11 liability for directors based on that new information. The court held that, as such, where there is a fundamental change in the information provided to the marketplace through the filing of a prospectus supplement, the new trigger dates for Section 11 liability will apply to those persons.
Federal, State Authorities Announce Largest RMBS Settlement To Date
On November 19, the DOJ, other federal authorities, and state authorities in California, Delaware, Illinois, and Massachusetts, announced a $13 billion settlement of federal and state RMBS civil claims, which were being pursued as part of the state-federal RMBS Working Group, part of the Obama Administration’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force. The DOJ described the settlement as the largest it has ever entered with a single entity. Federal and state law enforcement authorities and financial regulators alleged that the bank and certain institutions it acquired mislead investors in connection with the packaging, marketing, sale and issuance of certain RMBS. They claimed the institutions’ employees knew that loans backing certain RMBS did not comply with underwriting guidelines and were not otherwise appropriate for securitization, yet allowed the loans to be securitized and sold without disclosing the alleged underwriting failures to investors.The agreement includes $9 billion in civil penalties and $4 billion in consumer relief. Of the civil penalty amount, $2 billion resolves DOJ’s claims under the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act (FIRREA), $1.4 billion resolves federal and state securities claims by the NCUA, $515.4 million resolves federal and state securities claims by the FDIC, $4 billion settles federal and state claims by the FHFA, while the remaining amount resolves claims brought by California ($298.9 million), Delaware ($19.7 million) Illinois ($100.0 million), Massachusetts ($34.4 million), and New York ($613.0 million). The bank also was required to acknowledge it made “serious misrepresentations.” The agreement does not prevent authorities from continuing to pursue any possible related criminal charges.
Florida Appeals Court Affirms Dismissal Of State Qui Tam FCA Lawsuit Alleging Failure To Pay Stamp Tax Upon Assignment
On November 21, the Florida First District Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of a qui tam false claims act lawsuit against a lender, securitization trust, and MERS for the recovery of allegedly unpaid documentary stamp taxes associated with certain assignments of mortgage notes. Stevens v. State of Florida, No. 1D13-1206, 2013 WL 6097312 (Fl. Ct. App. Nov. 20, 2013). Appellants, two Florida residents, sought to recover the alleged unpaid taxes on behalf of the State of Florida as relators under the Florida False Claims Act (FFCA), as well as a cut of the recovered proceeds. But the First District Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s determination that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction under the FFCA to address Appellants’ claims. Specifically, the First District found that Florida’s Tax Act—not the FFCA—governed private actions like Appellants’ where a plaintiff sought recovery for a failure to pay taxes. Analyzing the Tax Act and FFCA under well-settled principles of statutory construction, including that specific statutes trump general statutes and that legislatures are presumed to be aware of existing laws when they pass new ones, the court of appeals determined that the Tax Act, which vests the Florida Department of Revenue with the power to compensate tax whistleblowers, precluded Appellants’ FFCA claim. BuckleySandler attorneys Matthew Previn, Andrew Louis, and Bradley Marcus represented the lender, GE Money Bank, which is now known as GE Capital Retail Bank, in the successful lower court action and subsequent successful appeal.