The nation's two largest mortgage servicers—Bank of America and Wells Fargo & Co.—are among the most sued financial service firms in the nation, according to a new tally from Institutional Risk Analytics.
Moreover, IRA blames what it calls the "mortgage exposure" of these two firms (and others) as being the chief reason why they find themselves as defendants in so many legal actions.
Using lawsuit data taken from the PACER system, IRA found that in 2010 B of A was sued 3,285 times in federal court with Wells close behind at 3,092.
Back in 2007, B of A was a defendant in just 775 cases, Wells 962. Then again, that was just before the housing bubble burst and prior to B of A buying Countrywide Financial Corp., and Wells purchasing Wachovia. Those two purchases have resulted in large mortgage "legacy" issues.
Both, of course, have been sued for their foreclosure practices—along with many other servicers.
According to figures compiled by National Mortgage News, B of A and Wells have a combined servicing market share of 40%. They rank first and second, among all home mortgage servicers in the U.S.
Other financial service firms that found themselves the subjects of federal lawsuits in 2010 include: Ally Financial/GMAC (sued 768 times); Citigroup (447 times); and JPMorgan Chase (1,150).
