NCUA and RBS Reach $129.6 Million RMBS Settlement

The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) is accepting a $129.6 million settlement offer from the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) stemming from charges related to RBS residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) purchased by the now-defunct Members United and Southwest corporate credit unions.

Although the NCUA still has litigation pending in two federal courts against RBS for the sales of RMBS to another pair of now-defunct credit unions, U.S. Central and Wescorp, it nonetheless expressed satisfaction with the resolution of this particular issue.

“NCUA has a statutory obligation to secure recoveries for credit unions and ensure that consumers remain protected,” NCUA Board Chairman Debbie Matz said in a press statement. “We can assure stakeholders that we will continue to aggressively pursue recoveries against Wall Street firms that contributed to the corporate crisis. Each recovery as well as our ongoing lawsuits further NCUA’s goal of minimizing the losses of the corporate crisis and future costs to credit unions.”

NCUA will channel the settlement funds to reduce the Temporary Corporate Credit Union Stabilization Fund assessments charged to federally insured credit unions for paying off the losses caused by the failure of five corporate credit unions.