The historic settlement with JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM) over the bank's mortgage practices offers a unique look at how the bank packaged and marketed the mortgages it sold as securities, according to The New York Times:
At the heart of the civil settlement, which materialized after months of wrangling, is a statement of facts negotiated with the government that provides details into how JPMorgan assembled mortgage securities sold from 2005 through 2008. While the bank did not admit any violations of law, its decision to approve the statement was one of a few critical concessions it made in order to strike the deal.
The statement shows that as JPMorgan packaged the residential mortgages into complex securities, the bank promised to alert investors to any flaws that might raise questions about the loans, according to the statement.
Of course, the real news about the settlement is that it isn't really about JPMorgan Chase at all. It's about the crappy loans sold by Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual:
Many of the mortgage securities included in the settlement are not JPMorgan’s. Instead, they belong to Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual, which JPMorgan bought in 2008.
On a conference call on Tuesday, Marianne Lake, the bank’s chief financial officer, said that roughly 80 percent of the losses at issue in the settlement stem from Bear Stearns.
Bet JPM feels great about those purchases right about now.
