Wachovia has agreed to pay $53 million to resolve claims filed by the NCUA arising from losses related to the purchases of securities by now-closed corporate credit unions, the agency announced Oct. 19.
The settlement follows news of Barclays Bank's agreement to pay the NCUA $325 million to settle claims filed by the regulator, and brings the total recoveries from litigation against banks that sold faulty residential mortgage-backed securities to corporate credit unions to $2.2 billion, the NCUA said.
The NCUA said it intends to use the net proceeds to reduce Temporary Corporate Credit Union Stabilization Fund assessments charged to federally insured credit unions to pay for the losses caused by the failure of five corporate credit unions.
"(The) NCUA's litigation efforts are helping minimize the costs of the corporate crisis to the credit union system, and those efforts will continue," NCUA Board Chairman Debbie Matz said in a news release. "The agency has a statutory obligation to protect credit unions from those costs, and we will pursue the available legal remedies in order to hold the institutions that sold the faulty securities accountable for their actions."
The NCUA filed suit against Wachovia in 2011. Once the settlement is completed, the NCUA will dismiss pending claims against the firm in federal district courts in California, Kansas and New York, the agency said. Wachovia has not admitted fault in the settlement.
The NCUA said it will continue to pursue litigation in federal courts in New York, Kansas and California against financial firms, including Goldman Sachs, UBS, Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley, based on the sale of faulty securities that caused the collapse of five corporate credit unions.
It also has litigation pending against securities firms alleging violations of state and federal anti-trust law by manipulation of interest rates through the London Interbank Offer Rate system, as well as against financial firms alleging their failure to perform their duties as trustees of residential mortgage-backed securities trusts, the agency said.
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Natasha Chilingerian
Natasha Chilingerian has been immersed in the credit union industry for over a decade. She first joined CU Times in 2011 as a freelance writer, and following a two-year hiatus from 2013-2015, during which time she served as a communications specialist for Xceed Financial Credit Union (now Kinecta Federal Credit Union), she re-joined the CU Times team full-time as managing editor. She was promoted to executive editor in 2019. In the earlier days of her career, Chilingerian focused on news and lifestyle journalism, serving as a writer and editor for numerous regional publications in Oregon, Louisiana, South Carolina and the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition, she holds experience in marketing copywriting for companies in the finance and technology space. At CU Times, she covers People and Community news, cybersecurity, fintech partnerships, marketing, workplace culture, leadership, DEI, branch strategies, digital banking and more. She currently works remotely and splits her time between Southern California and Portland, Ore.
