These swaps made it much easier to place large bets on mortgage failures.
At the time, the economy was reeling from subprime mortgage failures that had brought the housing market to its knees.
The litigation represents a more intense effort by the federal government to go after the financial services industry for its supposed mortgage failures.
WASHINGTON — A huge wave of mortgage failures on commercial real estate could hit next year, causing banks to lose as much as $300 billion, imperiling lending for small businesses and hindering the economic recovery, a Congressional panel is warning.
Many borrowers have complained about their mortgage companies' failure to respond to inquiries until foreclosure is the only option.
Those numbers are leading some housing experts to call the program, which modestly rewards lenders for modifying mortgages, a failure.
Millions of Americans lost their homes as a result of mortgage companies' failures.
OneWest was created from the remains of IndyMac Bank, a specialist in high-risk mortgages whose failure in 2008 cost the federal deposit insurance fund more than $13 billion.
He is no longer a registered lobbyist, but he worked as one until 2005 for Fannie Mae, the government-backed mortgage giant whose failure this year contributed to the financial crisis.
Botched efforts at mortgage restructuring, a failure to restore the flow of credit to small and medium-size enterprises, and the mishandling of the bailouts have all been well documented — as was the failure to foresee the severity of the economic collapse.
