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JP Morgan Tentatively Agrees To Pay $13 Billion To Settle Probes Over RMBS Sales - Reports
Tom Burroughes
21 October 2013
has reached an agreement with the US Justice
Department to pay a record $13 billion to settle several investigations of its
residential mortgage-backed securities business, media reports said. The US banking firm declined to comment to WealthBriefing about the matter when contacted today. The agreement was made on late Friday, reports said. It does
not resolve a continuing criminal probe of the bank’s conduct, which could
result in charges against individuals or the bank itself and possibly increase
the size of any penalty. There remains a disagreement over an admission of wrongdoing
that would end the criminal probe and decided instead to resolve the civil
allegations related to the mortgage securities, according to one report, by the Wall Street Journal. The WSJ said the agreement includes $4 billion to settle
claims by the Federal Housing Finance Agency that JP Morgan misled Fannie Mae
and Freddie Mac about the quality of loans it sold them in the run-up to the
2008 financial crisis, another $4 billion in consumer relief, and $5 billion in
penalties paid by the bank. The agreement hasn’t been completed and some particulars are
still being discussed, such as the final wording, reports said. If completed, the deal would represent the largest
settlement the US government has reached with a single company. The deal would also resolve a
separate suit brought by New York
state’s attorney general, Eric Schneiderman. Last week, JP Morgan, which was issuing third-quarter
results (showing a loss for the group as a whole), said it set aside $9 billion
additional legal reserves in the third quarter.