In the Foreclosure and Renters Rights and Battles GROUP, we are going to continuously delve into the issues of good and bad faith, rights and wrongs of parties involved and solutions. Today, we have a new, neat, little tidbit. The SEC has asked a Federal court in San Francisco to compel Wells Fargo to turn over documents pertaining ttheir sale of $60 Billion in Mortgage Backed Securities.
According to WaPo (reporting in conjunction with Bloomberg) story "SEC seeks court order forcing Wells Fargo--" it states;
The Securities and Exchange Commission said in a statement Friday that Wells Fargo agreed to produce the documents under subpoenas dating to September of 2011, but the bank has failed to hand over much of the requested material.
The SEC said it is investigating whether the San Francisco-based Wells Fargo “made material misrepresentations or omitted material facts” in securitizing the loans. The company would perform a due diligence review of a sample of the loans within the securities and would drop loans that didn’t meet its underwriting standards, the SEC said. But the agency said it doesn’t appear that Wells Fargo took steps to drop bad loans from the rest of the securities.
As noted in the WaPo story - Wells Fargo had subpoenas served upon it September 2011 and has thus far failed to produce the documents.
According to a New York Post story "Wells to SEC: Don't Bank on it" - the Bank is going to fight the SEC. Quoting Wells Fargo, the NY Post says the SEC said and Wells Fargo replies;
SEC
Wells agreed to produce the documents under subpoenas dating back more than 10 years — but has failed to hand over much of the requested material, the SEC said.
Wells Fargo replies
The bank said the SEC inaccurately described its conduct involving mortgage-backed securities and that no enforcement action by the agency is warranted.
NOTED by the NY Post Story;
Wells said it would perform a due diligence review of a sample of the loans within the securities and would drop loans that didn’t meet its underwriting standards, the regulator noted. But the agency said Wells, by all appearances, didn’t take any action to drop bad loans from the rest of the securities.
According to Wikipedia (here) - Wells Fargo has 1 out of every 4 mortgages in the United States at a total estimated value of $1.8 Trillion - as stated verbatim;
Wells Fargo Home Mortgage
Wells Fargo Home Mortgage is the largest retail mortgage lender in the United States, as of Q3 2011, originating one out of every four home loans.[17] Wells Fargo services $1.8 trillion dollars in home mortgages, the 2nd largest servicing portfolio in the U.S.[18]
One thing for sure - I am excited to see an "actual" battle going on between the SEC and a big Bank. We need more of this and I, for one, am deeply curious as to how the banter and rhetoric will bare out.
We are looking for researchers and Diary writers for this group (as well as members). Please PM or email me at Laser.Haas@yahoo.com ?