https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/wells-fargo-bank-agrees-pay-12-billion-improper-mortgage-lending-practices
Wells Fargo Bank Agrees to Pay $1.2 Billion for Improper Mortgage Lending Practices
Wells Fargo Bank Admits That It Certified that Loans Were Eligible for FHA Mortgage Insurance When They Were Not, and That It Did Not Disclose Thousands of Faulty Mortgage Loans to HUD
The Department of Justice announced today that the United States has settled civil mortgage fraud claims against Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. (Wells Fargo) and Wells Fargo executive Kurt Lofrano, stemming from Wells Fargo’s participation in the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Direct Endorsement Lender Program. In the settlement, Wells Fargo agreed to pay $1.2 billion and admitted, acknowledged and accepted responsibility for, among other things, certifying to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), during the period from May 2001 through December 2008, that certain residential home mortgage loans were eligible for FHA insurance when in fact they were not, resulting in the Government having to pay FHA insurance claims when some of those loans defaulted. The agreement resolves the United States’ civil claims in its lawsuit in the Southern District of New York, as well as an investigation conducted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York regarding Wells Fargo’s FHA origination and underwriting practices subsequent to the claims in its lawsuit and an investigation conducted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California into whether American Mortgage Network, LLC (AMNET), a mortgage lender acquired by Wells Fargo in 2009, falsely certified and submitted ineligible residential mortgage loans for FHA insurance.
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According to the second amended complaint filed in Manhattan federal court, the government had alleged:
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First, between at least May 2001 and October 2005, Wells Fargo, the largest HUD-approved residential mortgage lender, engaged in a regular practice of reckless origination and underwriting of its FHA retail loans, all the while knowing that it would not be responsible when the defective loans went into default. To maximize its loan volume (and profits), Wells Fargo elected to hire temporary staff to churn out and approve an ever increasing quantity of FHA loans, but neglected to provide this inexperienced staff with proper training. At the same time, Wells Fargo’s management applied pressure on its underwriters to approve more and more FHA loans. The bank also imposed short turnaround times for deciding whether to approve the loans, employed lax underwriting standards and controls and paid bonuses to underwriters and other staff based on the number of loans approved. Predictably, as a result, Wells Fargo’s loan volume and profits soared, but the quality of its loans declined significantly. Yet, when Wells Fargo’s senior management was repeatedly advised by its own quality assurance reviews of serious problems with the quality of the retail FHA loans that the Bank was originating, management disregarded the findings and failed to implement proper and effective corrective measures, leaving HUD to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in claims for defaulted loans.
Second, Wells Fargo failed to self-report to HUD the bad loans that it was originating, in violation of FHA program reporting requirements. During the period 2002 through 2010, HUD required Direct Endorsement Lenders to perform post-closing reviews of the loans that they originated and to report to HUD in writing loans that contained fraud or other serious deficiencies. This requirement provided HUD with an opportunity to investigate the defective loans and request reimbursement for any claim that HUD had paid or request indemnification for any future claim, as appropriate. During this nine-year period, Wells Fargo, through its post-closing reviews, internally identified thousands of defective FHA loans that it was required to self-report to HUD, including a substantial number of loans that had gone into “early payment default.” However, instead of reporting these loans to HUD as required, Wells Fargo engaged in virtually no self-reporting during the four-year period from 2002 through 2005 and only minimal self-reporting after 2005.
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As part of the settlement, Wells Fargo has admitted, acknowledged and accepted responsibility for, among other things, the following conduct: During the period from May 2001 through, on or about Dec. 31, 2008, Wells Fargo submitted to HUD certifications stating that certain residential home mortgage loans were eligible for FHA insurance when in fact they were not, resulting in the Government having to pay FHA insurance claims when certain of those loans defaulted. From May 2001 through January 2003, Wells Fargo’s quality assurance group conducted monthly internal reviews of random samples of the retail FHA mortgage loans that the Bank had already originated, underwritten, and closed, which identified for most of the months that in excess of 25 percent of the loans and in several consecutive months, more than 40 percent of the loans, had a material finding. For a number of the months during the period from February 2003 through September 2004, the material finding rate was in excess of 20 percent. A “material” finding was defined by Wells Fargo generally as a
Wells Fargo also admitted, acknowledged and accepted responsibility for the following additional conduct: Between 2002 and October 2005, Wells Fargo made only one self-report to HUD, involving multiple loans. During that same period, the Bank identified through its internal quality assurance reviews approximately 3,000 FHA loans with material findings. Further, during the period between October 2005 and December 2010, Wells Fargo only self-reported approximately 300 loans to HUD. During that same period, Wells Fargo’s internal quality assurance reviews identified more than 2,900 additional FHA loans containing material findings that the Bank did not self-report to HUD. The government was required to pay FHA insurance claims when certain of these loans that Wells Fargo identified with material findings defaulted.
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