- Morgan Stanley agrees to pay the DOJ $2.6 billion to end investigation about its mortgage-backed securities deals during the financial crisis.
- MetLife settles with DOJ for $123.5 million for issuing mortgages that did not meet underwriting standards.
- State Farm will refund $352.5 million to customers for overcharging them for homeowners’ insurance.
- New York City apartment owners are suing Lexington Insurance Co. for failing to pay more than a third of its $95.3 million claims from Superstorm Sandy.
- Bank of America moves to dismiss Ambac’s $600 million claim that Countrywide issued faulty residential mortgage-backed securities.
Author Archives: Shea Cunningham
Wednesday’s Academic Roundup
- Regulation and Liability of Credit Rating Agencies – A More Efficient European Law?, by Thomas M.J. Mollers & Charis Niedorf, ECRF 2014, 333-363.
- How Federal Tax Expenditures that Support Housing Contribute to Economic Inequality, by Henry Rose, Loyola University Chicago School of Law Research Paper No. 2015-008.
- The Determinants of Subprime Mortgage Performance Following a Loan Modification, by Maximilian D. Schmeiser & Matthew B. Gross, FEDS Working Paper No. 2015-006.
- Housing Resource Bundles: Distributive Justice and Federal Low-Income Housing Policy, by John Infranca, University of Richmond Law Review, Vol. 49, 2015.
Monday’s Adjudication Roundup
- Federal judge reprimands Wells Fargo for forged mortgage documents in connection with foreclosure in NY.
- Goldman Sachs, among others, argues to SDNY that it was wrongfully included in litigation over requiring mortgage customers to purchase force-placed insurance and taking kickbacks. Goldman, Arrow motion to dismiss. Memorandum of Law in Support of Motion.
- Court denies motion to dismiss from NY Port Authority in suit brought for unpaid taxes on 40 properties in NY and NJ.
Friday’s Government Report Roundup
- CRS Report, ‘Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI): Programs and Policy Issues’, by Sean Lowry. (Need Bloomberg BNA Subscription)
- Consumers’ mortgage shopping experience, by CFPB.
- HUD Subsidized More Than 106,000 Noncompliant Households. (Discussing HUD’s large-scale failure in oversight of requirement that persons living in subsidized housing perform eight hours of community service per month, or enroll in job training).
Wednesday’s Academic Roundup
- Mansion Tax: The Effect of Transfer Taxes on the Residential Real Estate Market, by Wojciech Kopczuk, CEPR Discussion Paper No. DP10375.
- The National Rise in Residential Segregation, by Trevon Logan & John Parman, NBER Working Paper No. w20934. (Paid access).
- Cultural Districts and Economic Development in American Cities, by Michael J. Rushton (discussing whether public investment in the arts will increase local development of cities).
- The Impact of Foreclosure on Housing Prices, by Ralph Seibert, CESifo Working Papers Series No. 5196.
Monday’s Adjudication Roundup
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has sued and settled with Flagship Financial Group for $225,000 for advertising their mortgages as government approved.
- Citigroup, UBS and Goldman Sachs settle for $235 million over Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities that Residential Capital, LLC issued without informing consumers of the risks associated with such securities. New Jersey Carpenters Health Fund et al v. Residential Capital LLC et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 08-08781.
Wednesday’s Academic Roundup
- Banking Integration and House Price Comovement, by Augustin Landier, David Alexandre Sraer & David Thesmar, CEPR Discussion Paper No. DP10295.
- Second-Liens and the Leverage Option, by Adam J. Levitin & Susan M. Wachter, U of Penn. Inst. for Law & Econ Research Paper.
- Regulating Against Bubbles: How Mortgage Regulation Can Keep Main Street and Wall Street Safe – From Themselves, by Ryan Bubb & Prasad Krishnamurthy, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Vol. 163, Forthcoming NYU Law and Economics Research Paper No. 15-03.
- Who Wins Residential Property Tax Appeals?, by Randall K. Johnson, Columbia Journal of Tax Law, Forthcoming Mississippi College School of Law Research Paper No. 2015-01.
- The Theft of Affordable Housing: How Rent Stabilized Apartments are Disappearing from Fraudulent Individual Apartment Improvements and What Can Be Done to Save Them, by Justin R. La Mort, New York University Review of Law & Social Change, Forthcoming.
