Monday Morning Cup of Coffee

A look at stories across HousingWire’s weekend desk, with more coverage to come on bigger issues: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is in settlement talks with former Washington Mutual CEO Kerry Killinger and at least one other top former executive after filing suit against the parties for risks they took within WaMu’s home lending portfolio before the housing crisis, according to the Sacramento Bee. The original suit named former Chief Executive Officer Kerry Killinger, former Chief Operating Officer Stephen Rotella and former Home Loans president David Schneider defendants. The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee will hold a two-day meeting this week to discuss recent economic data and the second half of 2011. The meeting, which will run from June 21 to 22, will be the first closed discussion of FOMC members since late April and since reports surfaced showing housing prices on a continued downward trajectory. The scheduled meet-up arrives two weeks after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke delivered a somber first-half economic update. In the report, Bernanke said high unemployment and anemic housing sales are slowing economic growth. Looking forward, economists at Moody’s Analytics are sticking with their estimate of real GDP growth in the 2% range for the current quarter. They also expect housing prices to remain on the decline for a while, with a bottom expected sometime next year. While the analysts forecast growth for quarters three and four, they also remain wary, citing a sluggish recovery and ongoing concerns over the nation’s debt ceiling. A dispute between big banks, bond insurer MBIA and the New York State Insurance Department continued this past week, with both sides debating the meaning of internal MBIA e-mails released in court documents. The dispute involves banking plaintiffs — including Bank of America (BAC) whom allege the New York Insurance Department and its former superintendent, Eric Dinallo, approved a fraudulent conveyance by permitting MBIA to create a second insurance firm, using $5 billion siphoned from the company’s insurance subsidiary. Some of the original plaintiffs, CitiGroup and JPMorgan Chase have already pulled out of the suit, according to sources at MBIA. The plaintiffs in a brief with an appellate court released e-mails which they believe show MBIA leadership working to influence NYID to approve the deal. Meanwhile, MBIA responded in a statement saying: “The banks grossly mischaracterize these documents and fail to cite the overwhelming evidence in the record confirming that the NYID received unfettered access to MBIA’s records and employees, and conducted a thorough and extensive review of MBIA’s financial condition.” “We look forward to responding to all of the banks’ misleading arguments and mischaracterizations when MBIA responds to the banks’ papers on August 31,” the statement said. “We remain confident that after a review of the full record the court will affirm the NYID’s approval of MBIA’s transformation.” The FDIC closed two banks this past week. First, the agency was appointed receiver after Florida regulators shuttered the doors of First Commercial Bank of Tampa Bay in Tampa. Shortly thereafter, Stonegate Bank of Fort Lauderdale assumed all of the banks deposits. In addition, regulators closed McIntosh State Bank in Jackson, Ga., with Hamilton State Bank assigned all of the deposits. Write to: Kerri Panchuk.