The present financial crisis has resulted in an increase in the number of lawsuits filed in the country. The mortgage meltdown is forcing financial institutions to leave the negotiating table and turn to the courts to resolve subprime-related disputes with their partners. In the past, large financial institutions often shied away from suing each other, preferring to work out problems quietly because they did not want to jeopardize future business relationships. Now, if the cases filed in the courts are any indication, then these companies are dropping their reluctance to sue each other.
HSH Nordbank AG is suing UBS AG in a New York state court over losses HSH sustained on a $500 million portfolio of collateralized debt obligations linked to the U.S. mortgage market. M&T Bank Corp sued Deutsche Bank AG and others in June to recover more than $82 million it said it lost by investing in collateralized debt that had been billed as nearly risk free. Another lawsuit involved Barclays PLC and the now defunct Bear Stearns over the high-profile collapse of two mortgage-linked hedge funds.
The severity of the subprime losses means that more such corporate disputes are likely to land in court. The stakes involved are so high, and many experts are not surprised about the increase in the number of lawsuits.
The increase in litigation is not restricted to litigation between financial institutions. A study by Navigant Consulting found that the volume of private lawsuits in the U.S. stemming from the current financial crisis has already surpassed levels seen in the aftermath of the savings and loan debacle two decades ago when 559 lawsuits were filed over six years. From January 2007 to the end of June of this year, 607 civil cases were filed in federal courts. These cases related to the meltdown in the subprime mortgage market. More than half of the lawsuits were filed in the first six months of this year.
As the present crisis gets more serious, the litigation will also increase. The result of the study is scary – it shows only the lawsuits filed in federal courts and doesn’t reflect the number of lawsuit filed in the states.
As the present crisis deepens, we are likely to see an increasing number of bank failures resulting in another wave of lawsuits. Eleven banks have already been seized by regulators.
A study by Stanford Law School and Cornerstone Research found the number of class action lawsuits filed against Wall Street firms surged in the last year, fueled by the meltdown in the subprime mortgage market. There was a 43% jump in the number of securities fraud class action lawsuits last year. Forty-seven Wall Street firms sued in 2007, more than four times the number sued in 2006. New York City’s retirement and pension funds for city workers filed lawsuits against mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp., claiming the lender misrepresented the risk of its mortgage-backed securities.
An increase in volatility in the market, like the one that is now taking place as a result of the subprime mortgage problems, is directly correlated to an increase in the number of lawsuits filed. If economic conditions were to decline in the future, then a strong resurgence of lawsuits would likely follow.
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