Investors Want JP Morgan Chase & Co. To Explain Over $95B of Mortgage-Backed Securities

Institutional investors that placed their money in over $95B in mortgage-backed securities want the trustees overseeing JP Morgan & Chase. Co.-issued securities to figure out whether certain loans shouldn’t have been included as a result of faulty underwriting. US Bank, Bank of New York Mellon, Wells Fargo & Co., HSBC, and Citibank are the trustees.

PIMCO and BlackRock Inc. are two of the institutional investors requesting the investigation. According to their legal representatives, the group of investors represent over 25% of voting rights on 243 residential mortgage-backed securities. The institutional investors want to know whether mortgages that were not eligible ended up included in the collateral backing the bonds. The investor group is the same one that reached an $8.5 billion securities settlement with Bank of America. (The 22 investors include the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Black Rock Inc., Goldman Sachs Asset Management, MetLife Inc., and PIMCO). However, the settlement is still pending and has been challenged by other mortgage bondholders.

Related to this current requested probe, JP Morgan and its different arms put out the securities between 2005 and 2007. Included were bonds from Washington Mutual and Bear Stearns. About $450 billion in residential MBS were issued by JP Morgan to investors between 2005 and 2008. Approximately $169 billion of that principal is outstanding.

A lot of the loans were not originated at JP Morgan, but the investment bank and its other entities did buy them. JP Morgan has contented that it should be the originator that should buy back the loans that were part of the securities contract.

According to the New York Times, if investors were to settle with JP Morgan by applying the same loss ratio used in arriving at the Bank of America agreement, this figure would probably hit about $1.9 billion. Meantime, JP Morgan must contend with approximately $31 billion in securities class-action cases.

Because of mortgage-related concerns, beginning in 2010, JP Morgan placed $8.5 billion into its reserves for litigation. At the end of the third quarter, the investment bank’s mortgage repurchase reserves were $3.6 billion.

Meantime, state attorneys generals and the Federal Housing Finance Agency continue to look at how investment banks handled mortgage-backed securities leading up to the housing market. More securities litigation from investors is expected.

Investors target JPMorgan over $95 billion of RMBS, Gulf News, December 16, 2011

Mortgage Investors Put J.P. Morgan in Cross Hairs, The Wall Street Journal, December 17, 2011

Bank of America in $8.5 billion settlement, CNN, June 29, 2011

More Blog Posts:
Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch Settles for $315 million Class Action Lawsuit Over Mortgage-Backed Securities, Institutional Investor Securities Blog, December 6, 2011

FDIC Objects to Bank of America’s Proposed $8.5B Settlement Over Mortgage-Backed Securities, Stockbroker Fraud Blog, August 30, 2011

Some of the SEC Charges Against Investment Adviser Over Alleged Involvement In J.P. Morgan Securities LLC Collateralized Debt Obligation Are Dismissed, Institutional Investor Securities Blog, September 24, 2011

If you believe that you suffered losses because of mortgage-backed securities issued by JP Morgan & Chase or any other financial firm, our institutional investment fraud lawyers at Shepherd Smith Edwards and Kantas, LTD LLP want to hear from you.

Your first consultation with our securities fraud law firm is free.