US intended to sue more than dozen big banks
US authorities are preparing to sue more than a dozen big banks over claims they misrepresented the quality of mortgages sold during the 2006-7 housing bubble, “The Guardian” writes.
According to the source, the US Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is reportedly planning to argue that America's biggest banks failed to check the health of mortgages before they sold them on to investors. The collapse of hundreds of thousands of sub-prime mortgages triggered the 2008 credit crisis and the collapse of Fannie and Freddie.
The New York Times said the FHFA is expected to file the lawsuit against the banks, including Bank of America, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank, as early as Friday. The agency, which is seeking billions of dollars in compensation, claims the banks failed to notice that borrowers were taking on mortgages that they could not afford.