The Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas in partnership with  member financial institutions has awarded $14 million in Affordable Housing Program grants to 29 projects in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico and Texas, which will result in the creation or rehabilitation of 1,853 housing units.

FHLB Dallas annually returns 10 percent of its profits in the form of AHP grants to the communities served by its member institutions. AHP funding is utilized for a variety of projects, including home rehabilitation and modifications for low-income, elderly and special-needs residents; down payment and closing-cost assistance for qualified first-time homebuyers; and the construction of low-income, multifamily rental communities and single-family homes.

“FHLB Dallas’ AHP provides millions of dollars for housing in our District, which our member institutions use to develop and support their communities,” said FHLB Dallas President and CEO Sanjay Bhasin. “It is our privilege to provide a program through which our members can positively impact their communities.”

Fires in California Place $18B of Houses at Risk

Houses with a reconstruction cost value of $18 billion, or 48, 390 homes, face high or extreme risk of wildfire damage from the Camp and Woolsey fires in Northern and Southern California, according to a CoreLogic analysis. While other hazards may cause partial destruction but rarely eliminate an entire property, wildfire events are more likely to cause total loss to structures affected.

Also, not all structures within a fire perimeter will suffer damage or be destroyed by the fire. Once the wildfires are contained, CoreLogic will assess the damage and provide a post-catastrophe loss estimate for the affected areas.

Wells Fargo Bank has settled two lawsuits with BlackRock, Pacific Investment Management Co. LLC and other plaintiffs over the bank’s role as trustee for residential mortgage-backed securities trusts.

The bank will pay $43 million and denies the claims in the litigation, under the terms of the agreement. Separate from the settlement amount the bank is paying, up to $70 million will be released from trust reserve accounts created in connection with the litigation.

“Following more than four years of litigation, including fact and expert discovery, we concluded that this agreement provides a fair and reasonable resolution of the claims,” said Pimco, BlackRock and the other institutional investor plaintiffs through their counsel, Timothy DeLange of Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP. “We appreciate Wells Fargo’s professionalism in reaching this agreement and commend their efforts to work with certificate holders to resolve the litigation. While we believe the claims are meritorious, the settlement provides an immediate and concrete benefit for class members, while bringing the litigation to a close.”

The settlement also resolves a related action seeking declaratory relief against Wells Fargo, as well as claims by Wells Fargo against certain investment advisors. The securities were created over 10 years ago. Federal and state cases alleging similar claims filed that other institutional investors weren’t a part of the settlement.

The agreement, which is subject to approval by the court, resolves claims regarding the fulfillment of Wells Fargo’s duties as trustee, including providing certain notifications to certificate holders, for 271 RMBS trusts created between 2004 and 2008. Wells was to administer the trusts, and it had no role in the origination or servicing of the mortgages at issue, according to the bank. The agreement resolves a significant portion of the claims asserted against the company in connection with its role as trustee for RMBS trusts. Separate lawsuits filed by certain other institutional investors concerning 58 trusts are not covered by the agreement.

“Consistent with our sound business practices, we believe that we appropriately fulfilled our duties as trustee by performing the responsibilities prescribed in the relevant contracts for these decade-old trusts,” said Troy Kilpatrick, head of corporate trust services at Wells. “While we disagree with the allegations, it is in the best interest of all parties to put this protracted litigation behind us and we are satisfied with this settlement.”

Wells Fargo had disclosed the RMBS Trustee litigation in its public filings, including in its most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. The settlement amount was fully accrued on June 30.

The Department of Justice Department has filed a civil complaint against UBS and its U.S. affiliates, alleging the sale of residential mortgage-backed securities to investors was fraudulent.

UBS misled investors about the quality of billions of dollars in subprime and Alt-A mortgage loans backing 40 RMBS deals, between 2006 to 2007, the years just prior to the financial meltdown.

“The complaint alleges that instead of ensuring that their representations to investors were accurate and transparent, UBS affirmatively misled investors and withheld crucial information from them about the loans in its deals,” said United States Attorney Pak, for the Northern District of Georgia.  “UBS allegedly placed a higher priority on selling bonds and making profits than accurately representing the quality of the underlying loans to investors. These practices resulted in massive losses to investors, harmed homeowners, and ultimately jeopardized the banking system.”

According to the government, in offering documents for the bonds UBS misrepresented the loans and concealed that the loans were much riskier and more likely to default than the bank represented. Ultimately, the 40 RMBS sustained catastrophic losses.

The complaint alleges that UBS’ actions violated the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989, including mail fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, and other misconduct. The ACT authorizes the attorney general to seek civil penalties up to the amount of the gain derived from the violation, or the losses investors suffered.

“The fraudulent actions by UBS as alleged in the complaint contributed to the 2008 financial crisis, which resulted in lasting economic harm to the nation and unnecessary suffering for Americans,” said Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Jesse Panuccio. “This suit aims to hold UBS accountable and sends a strong message that the Department of Justice will not tolerate fraud committed by corporations.

“Investors who bought RMBS from UBS suffered catastrophic losses, which not only caused direct harm to those investors, but also contributed to the financial crisis of 2008,” said United States Attorney Donoghue. “The filing of this complaint makes clear that we will continue to hold financial institutions fully accountable for their conduct and will aggressively pursue financial fraud.”