Thanks to a press release issued on Thursday, we now know the dollar values of every settlement the Federal Housing Finance Agency has reached with financial institutions over the last year. The newly public numbers support what some observers have long suspected: General Electric Co. and Citigroup Inc. were smart to exit the litigation early.
The FHFA, which serves as conservator to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, sued 18 banks in the summer of 2011, alleging they duped Fannie and Freddie into purchasing about $200 billion in mortgage-backed securities. Since January 2013, the agency has settled with six of the defendants. In chronological order, GE, Citi, UBS AG, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Ally Financial Inc., and Deutsche Bank AG have opted to make deals so far. (The FHFA also struck a deal with Wells Fargo & Co., but that dispute was resolved out of court.)
