What Do Bank of America And The Federal Home Loan Banks Have In Common? A Lawsuit & PwC

Have you been following the trials and tribulations of Bank of America and their auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP?

I have.

My latest column at Forbes.com highlights the bank’s latest worry – the Federal Home Loan Banks are joining the dispute over their record mortgage crisis settlement.

What’s the hedge when a long tail profitable relationship turns into fat tail risk?

Bet on both sides.

In 2010, PricewaterhouseCoopers had $141 million reasons to arbitrage their relationship between Bank of America and the Federal Home Loan Banks. As auditors of both, they play both sides in what looks to be a major battle brewing between Bank of America and some major investors, who include several of the Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLBs), over the Bank of New York Mellon (BONY) mortgage servicing settlement.

Bloomberg, July 21, 2011: Investors in Countrywide Financial Corp. mortgage bonds may be owed three times or more of what they’re being offered in an $8.5 billion settlement with Bank of America Corp. (BAC), a group of Federal Home Loan Banks said… The Federal Home Loan Banks of BostonChicago, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Seattle are seeking to intervene in the case and may oppose the settlement, according to court papers… The home loan banks criticized assumptions in an expert report completed for Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (BK), the trustee for the mortgage-bond trusts. The report’s estimate of a reasonable settlement would rise to $22 billion to $27.5 billion if it assumed that Bank of America would have to buy back all loans in default and which breached representations and warranties, instead of 40 percent.

The problem at Bank of America is inadequate reserves for repurchase risk borne of bad representations and warranties and it’s been stewing for a while. The first big crisis failure, mortgage originator New Century Financial, experienced just the kind of out of control death spiral Jonathan Weil is now warning about with Bank of America.

New Century Financial didn’t reserve adequately for repurchase risk. KPMG, their auditor, settled claims they allowed executives to fudge the models used to make the estimates. A “sudden” liquidity crisis ensued when all their warehouse lines were called at once.

KPMG was also auditor for Countrywide, the sharpest thorn in Bank of America’s side.

Read the rest here, “PwC Hedges Bet Between Bank of America And Federal Home Loan Banks.”

1 reply
  1. Carl Olson
    Carl Olson says:

    Dear Mss. Mckenna:

    The public lost tens of billions of dollars due to
    reliance on vastly faulty CPA auditor opinions.

    Here is a short list:

    1. PricewatershouseCoopers — AIG, Freddie Mac
    2. Deloitte & Touche — Merrill Lynch, Fannie Mae, Washington Mutual, Bear
    Stearns
    3. Ernst & Young — Lehman Brothers, IndyMac Bank
    4. KPMG — Countrywide, Wachovia

    CPA auditors have been too long protected by state Boards of Accountancy, which
    license CPAs and CPA firms. In California, there are fewer than 5 investigators
    for 85,000 CPA licensees. No wonder no big firm is investigated.

    CPA auditor malpractice premiums are 15% of revenues — an astounding failure rate.

    California is about to fix this failure. The State Senate Committee on Business
    & Professions held a highly critical oversight hearing a month ago. Contact the
    committee’s consultant Bill Gage for more particulars.

    See our website http://www.cpawatch.org.

    Sincerely,

    Carl Olson
    Founder, http://www.cpawatch.org
    P.O. Box 6102
    Woodland Hills, California 91365
    818-223-8080

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