In a news release, the Securities and Exchange Commission said it charged Bank of America and two subsidiaries with defrauding investors in an offering of residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) by failing to disclose key risks and misrepresenting facts about the underlying mortgages.

The SEC alleges that Bank of America failed to tell investors that more than 70% of the mortgages backing the offering – called BOAMS 2008-A – originated through the bank’s “wholesale” channel of mortgage brokers unaffiliated with Bank of America entities. Bank of America knew that such wholesale channel loans – described by Bank of America’s then-CEO as “toxic waste” – presented vastly greater risks of severe delinquencies, early defaults, underwriting defects, and prepayment. These risks all directly impact the returns to RMBS investors; however Bank of America only selectively disclosed the percentage of wholesale channel loans to a limited group of institutional investors. Bank of America never disclosed this material information to all investors and never filed it publicly as required under the federal securities laws.

“In its own words, Bank of America ‘shifted the risk’ of loss from its own books to unsuspecting investors, and then ignored its responsibility to make a full and accurate disclosure to all investors equally,” said George S. Canellos, co-director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement.

To read the SEC news Release click here.