The NCUA said it is suing U.S. Bank National Association and the Bank of America National Association.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court, said the defendants "failed to perform the threshold duties of taking full possession of the original notes and mortgages and properly reviewing the mortgage loan files for irregularities."
If the defendants had fulfilled their obligations, "a significant percentage of the mortgage loans in the trusts would have been repurchased or substituted," the complaint said.
Between 2004 and 2007, corporate credit unions including U.S. Central, WesCorp, Members United, Southwest and Constitution bought about $5.8 billion in residential mortgage-backed securities issued from the trusts, which eventually lost value and contributed to the failure of all five corporates.
"NCUA will diligently continue to pursue legal remedies against parties that contributed to losses suffered by the credit union system," NCUA Board Chairman Debbie Matz said. "U.S. Bank and Bank of America had obligations under federal and state law, and they failed to live up to those obligations. This caused significant harm to trust beneficiaries, including the corporate credit unions and ultimately consumer credit unions. Our legal efforts are aimed at promoting accountability within the financial system."
Eric Richard, CUNA general counsel, said CUNA appreciates the NCUA's continued pursuit of recoveries in court on the assets of the conserved corporates.
"Any recovered funds should be credited to the estates of the failed corporates. We hope to someday see a return of capital to the credit unions that had capitalized the corporates," he said.
NAFCU SVP and General Counsel Carrie Hunt also applauded the lawsuit.
"NAFCU appreciates NCUA's vigor in pursuing legal remedies to make credit unions whole for the losses they incurred as a result of the collapse of corporate credit unions," she said. "We support NCUA's efforts to seek recoveries from the responsible entities and hope one day to eventually see these funds returned to the credit unions that paid hefty assessments to cover the costs of the corporate losses on the mortgage-backed securities."
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