The US government is suing the country's second-largest bank over investor losses on $850m (£550m) of mortgage bonds sold ahead of the financial crisis.
Separate filings by the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) were launched in North Carolina, where Bank of America is based, accusing the firm of failing to disclose risks about the mortgages and misleading investors in its sale of the mortgage-backed securities in 2008.
The government claimed the bank failed to tell investors that more than 70% of the mortgages backing the investment were written by mortgage brokers outside the banks' network.
Bank of America, which said it would fight the allegations in court, could face financial penalties if found guilty in the civil cases.
The government did not specify how much it was seeking in damages but it estimated that investors lost more than $100m on the deal.
US banks are facing regulatory action over pre-crisis behaviour In its filing, the SEC said: "Bank of America's CEO at the time described those mortgages as "toxic waste."
Anne Tompkins, the US attorney for the Western District of North Carolina, said in a statement: "Bank of America's reckless and fraudulent ... practices in the lead-up to the financial crisis caused significant losses to investors.
"Now, Bank of America will have to face the consequences of its actions," she concluded.
Bank of America responded: "These were prime mortgages sold to sophisticated investors who had ample access to the underlying data and we will demonstrate that.
"The loans in this pool performed better than loans with similar characteristics (made and packaged into securities) at the same time by other financial institutions.
"We are not responsible for the housing market collapse that caused mortgage loans to default at unprecedented rates and these securities to lose value as a result," the statement added.
The cases follow years of criticism that the government had failed to do enough to hold accountable those companies that contributed to the crisis.
When the real estate bubble burst in 2007, home values plunged and millions of people defaulted on their mortgages and lost their homes.
Investors who bought securities backed by high-risk mortgages lost billions.
Regulators have said that inaccurate statements by banks in packaging and selling mortgage bonds contributed to the investors' losses.
Bank of America, which received $45bn in federal bailout aid during the crisis, has had to pay tens of billions of dollars to settle class-action lawsuits and previous actions brought by the SEC.
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
US Sues Bank Of America Over Investor Losses
Dengan url
http://kerjasendirianda.blogspot.com/2013/08/us-sues-bank-of-america-over-investor.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
US Sues Bank Of America Over Investor Losses
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
US Sues Bank Of America Over Investor Losses
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar