Mortgages

The US Justice Department has filed a civil fraud lawsuit against UBS Group, accusing the Swiss banking giant of defrauding investors in its sale of residential mortgage-backed securities in the […]

Credit Suisse is taking a roughly $79.5 million hit to settle charges by Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance about its residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) business, the Swiss bank said late on Thursday.

The new pre-tax charge will be taken in the Zurich-based bank’s third-quarter results and is in addition to its existing legal reserves set aside for the case.

Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Wednesday that Credit Suisse will pay $5.28 billion in the settlement, which relates to the packaging, securitization, issuance, marketing and sale of residential mortgage-backed securities between 2005 and 2007. Credit Suisse announced in late December that it reached a settlement in principle with the DOJ which made it official.

Under the terms of the settlement, Credit Suisse will pay $2.48 billion as a civil penalty under the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act.

Romania prepared to vote on a plan to convert Swiss franc mortgages to the domestic currency at the exchange rate applicable when they were issued, Reuters reported on Friday; romanian lawmakers are expected to pass a bill on Monday.

There are about 50,000 loans still denominated in Swiss Francs and banks are on the edge to lose €540 mln, according to Romanian central bank’s estimates.

Deutsche Bank has received from the US authorities the request to pay $ 14 bn to close the case into mortgage-backed securities. As reported by the Wall Street Journal, the facts are previous to the outbreak of the 2008 crisis that led to the failure of Lehman Brothers. Certainly, if the figure is confirmed, it would not only among the highest paid to resolve similar issues but it would much over analysts’ expectations of the German group.

Housing crisis grows. According to data released by the Resolution Foundation think tank, there was a drop in the number of homeowners in England, recording the worst figure in the last thirty years.

The percentage of households that own a home, including those with a mortgage, reached its peak in 2003, to 71%, to collapse this year at 64%, a figure not seen since 1986.

Requests for loans from American families return to fall, despite the Fed’s decision to freeze rates.

In the week ending May 27, the index that measures the volume of mortgage applications decreased by 4.1%, after + 2.3% recorded in the previous week. About the index relating to refinancing applications it marked a decrease of 4%.

This was announced by the Mortgage Bankers Associations (MBA) stating that the rates on thirty-year mortgages remained stable at 3.85% as in the previous month.

The European housing markets keep on the recovery path, albeit with differences amongst the single countries. Pushing sales and prices are favourable conditions like low interest rates and economic growth. The headwinds come from markets turmoils, risk aversion and concerns about the strength of the banking sector in some countries.