The public may
doubt the sincerity of the latest wide-scale investigation into the
malfunctions that sparked the financial crisis, but bank attorneys are not so
dismissive.
The Obama
administration launched the residential mortgage-backed securities working
group in January with much grandeur and a prompt set of 11 subpoenas, which has
now grown to 25. The group of federal regulators, the Justice
Department and the FBI
are looking into every step of the mortgage finance chain from origination,
securitization and investor disclosures, according to key industry attorneys.
Promises of
swift action proved premature. But it appears the group is finally beginning to
ramp up with large meetings scheduled at the end of May, a new
website for whistleblowers and a coordinating team.
"It's not
that they forgot about this," said Laurence Platt, who is leading the
industry's response team from his law firm K&L Gates. "There's
a lot of information gathering going on right now. We shouldn't take a lack of
headlines as they're not pursuing this or that. With these securitizations
there's a lot of things to get your hands around. They're trying to figure out
what was going on what was happening."
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