Bondholders Pick a Fight With Banks

Bondholders Pick a Fight With Banks

By RUTH SIMON
As banks restart foreclosures they had suspended, bondholders are stepping up efforts to recoup losses on soured mortgage portfolios amid concern about sloppy mortgage servicing and underwriting practices.

In a letter Monday, a group of institutional bond investors raised objections to the handling of 115 bond deals issued by affiliates of Countrywide Financial Corp., acquired by Bank of America Corp. in 2008.

The investor actions, which seek to have certain loans be repurchased among other things, come as Bank of America on Monday took steps to defuse claims that its foreclosure troubles are deep-seated. The bank on Monday said it was restarting the foreclosure of more than 100,000 homes.

The letter, to Bank of New York Mellon Corp. and Bank of America, cited Bank of America's "failure to observe and perform, in material respects" its duties as the servicer for the bond deals. The failure to properly handle the loans "has materially affected the rights" of bondholders, the letter said.

The institutional investors, who include mutual-fund managers, government-related entities, insurance companies and investment partnerships, are seeking to have loans that didn't meet underwriting requirements repurchased and to be compensated for losses due to inadequate mortgage servicing, says Kathy Patrick, an attorney with Gibbs & Bruns, a Houston law firm representing the investors.

The group says it holds roughly $16.5 billion—or more than 25%—of the $47 billion in outstanding mortgage-backed securities from these deals.

"We are reviewing the letter," said a BNY Mellon spokesman. "It appears to be directed to Countrywide and does not ask BNY Mellon to take any action. We will continue to perform our duties as trustee." A Bank of America spokesman declined to comment.

As mortgage servicer, Bank of America is responsible for collecting loan payments and working with troubled borrowers. BNY Mellon, the bond trustee, is charged with administering the securitizations, or bond trusts, for the benefit of investors. Investors say they are concerned both about servicing and violations of representations and warranties made when the loans were packaged into bonds.

Monday's action lays the groundwork for what could be one of the first lawsuits by mortgage-bond investors seeking to enforce their contract rights, including loan buybacks, in response to the current foreclosure crisis. Investors have mounted other challenges based on alleged violations of securities laws.

On Monday, the Association of Mortgage Investors stepped up efforts to pressure banks by calling on state attorneys general to expand their investigation of mortgage-servicing practices to include violations dating back to the time when loans were packaged into securities.

Analysts are trying to tally up the costs of loan buybacks and foreclosure moratoria. In a report issued Friday, Barclays Capital said the current crisis could delay foreclosures by three to six months. Longer timelines could reduce yields on some bonds by as much as one percentage point, it said, and "drastically" reduce cash flows to some bond holders in the next few months.

In a separate report issued Friday, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. bond analysts estimated that future losses from repurchases of loans that didn't meet sellers' promises could total $55 billion to $120 billion.

Even before the recent furor over "robo-signers"—back-office employees who approved hundreds of foreclosure documents daily without reviewing them—bond investors were raising concerns about servicer practices.

In August, a smaller group of investors in some Countrywide deals sent BNY Mellon instructions to investigate whether certain mortgages didn't meet representations made at the time the loans were packaged into securities. The group demanded that some loans be repurchased.

But the August letter, a BNY Mellon spokesman says, "did not comply with multiple requirements for giving direction to BNY Mellon in its role as trustee."

Recent disclosures of sloppy servicing practices follow questions about whether the processes for conveying loans to the bond trust were properly followed. Together, they "have exacerbated investor concerns and created delays and added costs that hurt investors," Ms. Patrick says.

Bond investors have been slow to press their claims, in part because of how the contracts for bond deals, known as pooling and servicing agreements, are written. Typically, these contracts require that bondholders gather 25% of the voting rights in the trust before they can enforce the contracts themselves. These provisions are intended to ensure that the action being requested will benefit bondholders as a group, rather than any one bondholder or subset of holders.

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Earlier this month, a New York state justice dismissed a lawsuit by investors who argued they shouldn't bear any of the cost of an $8.4 billion settlement between state attorneys general and Countrywide Financial. The judge said the investors hadn't satisfied terms set out in the pooling and servicing agreements.

The Oct. 18 investor letter formally notifies BNY Mellon and Bank of America that investors believe that Bank of America has failed to meet its obligations as a mortgage servicer. The two companies then have 60 days to address the issues, says Ms. Patrick.

If the problems aren't resolved, that would trigger an "event of default" under the agreement, Ms. Patrick says, which would allow an investor to file a lawsuit against both companies. Investors "aren't trying to halt loan modifications for troubled borrowers," she added.

The move is one of a number investor actions seeking to recoup losses. In a separate action, a group of investors in 2,300 mortgage securities worth $500 billion this summer sent a letter to trust departments of several large banks expressing concerns about how loans are being handled.

David Grais, a New York securities lawyer, recently announced plans to hold a conference on "Robosigners and Other Servicing Failures." Mr. Grais represents Federal Home Loan Banks in San Francisco and Seattle that have sued Wall Street banks, seeking to force them to buy back mortgage-backed bonds. Similar lawsuits were filed last week by Federal Home Loan Banks in Chicago and Indianapolis.

But the time to pursue some of these claims is running out, Mr. Grais says. Under New York contract law, investors generally have six years from the time of a securitization to put back loans that violate representations and warranties, Mr. Grais says. State securities law generally gives investors one to four years after they discover a legal violation to put back bonds that weren't accurately described in disclosure documents.

"If people don't throw their hat in the ring, they are out of luck," Mr. Grais says.

Write to Ruth Simon at ruth.simon@wsj.com