DZ Bank sued JPMorgan Chase yesterday in the New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan, according to a Bloomberg report.
The German lender stated that it purchased around $85 million of RMBS from JPMorgan based on offering materials that misrepresented the underwriting standards behind the underlying mortgages, the report said.
In the complaint, the Frankfurt-based bank claimed that it was unaware of the true facts about the defendants’ misrepresentations and omissions in the offering materials. Thus DZ Bank justifiably relied on those misrepresentations and ommissions, the foreign bank further claimed, Bloomberg said.
This is not the first instance of a foreign bank suing a U.S.-based financial institution over RMBS investments. ASR editor Nora Colomer cited several similar cases in her cover story for the February edition of the ASR magazine.
In January 2012, Dexia, the Brussels-based French-Belgian lender, filed a claim in New York State Court against JPMorgan over losses on $1 billion of MBS sold by Bear Stearns, which was acquired by JPMorgan during the financial crisis.
In December 2011, German bank HSH Nordbank also filed a claim against Ally Financial, JPMorgan and Barclays Capital over losses on $159 million of MBS it purchases from the bank in New York State Court. And Dutch pension firm Stichting Pensioenfond ABP filed a lawsuit against JPMorgan relating to losses on MBS it bought from the firm also in December last year.
Colomer's story stated that under New York State, where most investment banks that securitized mortgages are based, the statute of limitations is six years. That means the door is still open for investors who bought RMBS in 2006 and 2007 to file a claim.
Neil McCarthy from the legal consulting firm Lawyer Links believes that this is why a number of foreign banks have explored this option and why he expects to see more cases of a similar nature filed in New York State.
