Bank of America Merrill Lynch, sued by US attorneys in August over an US$850 million mortgage bond, faces three additional US Department of Justice civil probes over mortgage-backed securities, two people with direct knowledge of the situation said.
The offices of US attorneys in Georgia and California are examining potential violations tied to Countrywide Financial Corp, the subprime lender Bank of America bought in 2008, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the inquiries are not public. US attorneys in New Jersey are looking into deals involving Merrill Lynch & Co, which was purchased by Bank of America in 2009, the people said.
If claims are brought, Bank of America would join JPMorgan Chase & Co in facing justice department demands that it resolve liabilities inherited while buying weakened rivals at the government’s urging during the credit crisis.
JPMorgan, the biggest US bank, reached a tentative US$13 billion agreement last week to end civil claims over mortgage-bond sales, including those handled by Bear Stearns Cos and Washington Mutual Inc operations purchased in 2008.
Bank of America, led by CEO Brian Moynihan, 54, is being examined for violations of the Financial Institution Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989, a relic of the savings-and-loan crisis known as FIRREA, the people said. The justice department cited that statute in its August lawsuit against the firm, which is the nation’s second-largest lender after JPMorgan.
The law allows the government to sue an individual or group for fraud that affects a federally insured financial institution. It carries a 10-year statute of limitations.
Bank of America was accused of misleading investors about the quality of loans tied to US$850 million in mortgage-backed securities. While the bank had portrayed the bond as backed by prime loans vetted by its staff, most were riskier wholesale debts, meaning they were originated by outside brokers, authorities wrote.
US President Barack Obama ordered the creation of a task force last year to coordinate investigations into improper mortgage-bond underwriting by banks. As part of that effort, US attorneys in California are examining potential FIRREA violations by JPMorgan that would be included in the firm’s US$13 billion settlement, a person with knowledge of the deal said.
The US efforts are adding to more than US$100 billion in legal costs already incurred by the six biggest US banks since the credit crisis, a figure exceeding all of the dividends paid to shareholders in the past five years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day