03/12/2011
The wide-ranging probe into the banking industry’s foreclosure practices could cause JPMorgan Chase & Co to be confronted with “material” fines and “significant” legal costs. This was disclosed by the bank Monday in the annual report it filed with securities regulators.
The New York-based bank also revealed at year-end in 2010, it was a defendant in over 10,000 legal proceedings, with estimated legal losses of around $4.5 billion.
The second largest bank in the US by assets, JPMorgan said it was cooperating with different foreclosure investigations initiated by state and federal authorities last fall. This was after lenders, JPMorgan included, temporarily suspended repossessions upon discovering paperwork flaws.
The disclosure of JPMorgan mirrored those made recently by other big mortgage lenders in their yearly reports.
Wells Fargo & Co, Bank of America Corp and Citigroup Inc, disclosed similar concerns about the investigations being done by regulators, the U.S. Department of Justice and coalition of attorneys general of the 50 states.
The observation of JPMorgan on the potentiality of fines and other penalties was shared by the Minneapolis-based US Bancorp in the annual report it also filed with regulators.
According to US Bancorp, it is expecting that regulators will recommend some changes in certain aspects of their foreclosure processes. They also said that these changes will not greatly impact their financial position.
