On January 7, Fannie Mae and a national bank announced a comprehensive settlement to resolve all outstanding and future repurchase requests on nearly all single-family loans originated by the bank (and other lenders it later acquired) over a nine-year period and subsequently delivered to Fannie Mae. The announcement states that the loans had an outstanding unpaid principal balance of $297 billion as of November 30, 2012. Fannie Mae alleges that the lenders breached representations and warranties on the loans. The bank agreed to pay $3.55 billion in cash to Fannie Mae and to repurchase roughly 30,000 loans with cumulative unpaid principal balances and interest of $6.75 billion. On the loans retained by Fannie Mae, the bank remains responsible for certain payment and other obligations with respect to mortgage insurance rescissions, cancellations and denials, as well as its servicing, third-party indemnification, and recourse obligations. Finally, Fannie Mae and FHFA approved the transfer of servicing rights for roughly one million loans from the bank to specialty servicers, which FHFA stated is designed to benefit borrowers and reduce future credit losses to Fannie Mae.
