An uncle once told me, “I’ve had bad luck with both my wives. The first one left me. And the second one didn’t.” In a story from Reuters,both Deutsche Bank and France’s BNP Paribas SA separately sued Bank of America last Wednesday, “claiming that the largest U.S. bank breached its obligations on a total of more than $1.7 billion of mortgage-related transactions.” Both lawsuits relate to Ocala Funding LLC, a funding vehicle used by Taylor, Bean & Whitaker. TBW used Colonial Bank for warehouse lending, which Bank of America sued in August. Deutsche Bank accused BofA of breach of contract for failing to safeguard more than $1.25 billion of cash and mortgage loans from deals in 2007 and 2008. In the other lawsuit, BNP Paribas Mortgage Corp said BofA refused to pay $480.7 million of principal and interest on secured notes when the sum came due in August. A Bank of America spokesman said the bank had fulfilled its contractual obligations and would defend itself against the allegations in court. “BNP and Deutsche Bank’s effort to hold Bank of America responsible, however, is misguided. We fulfilled our contractual obligations in our limited administrative role with respect to the Ocala facility.”
Dubai, home of the palm tree-shaped island, sail-shaped high-rise hotel, and indoor skiing, is not immune to the credit crisis. Apparently they borrowed quite a bit to finance their world-famous expansion, but on Wednesday the city-state said it would restructure its largest corporate entity, Dubai World and announced a six-month standstill on the company’s debt. Of course this news immediately pushed up the price of insuring against a default and reminded everyone of the collapse in its once-booming real-estate sector late last year. Fortunately it appears that our banks, and the mortgage business, have limited exposure to Dubai’s problems. But the question is whether Dubai World is isolated, or a sign of widespread sovereign debt defaults in emerging markets? One investor said, “I always thought that Dubai was way too flashy anyway, and they’re getting what they deserve – it’s fine unless its problems impact me.”