On May 16, Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York granted a permanent injunction against hedge fund Turnberry Capital Management LP (Turnberry) in its attempt to compel a FINRA proceeding against SunTrust Banks Inc. (SunTrust). Judge Buchwald held that because Turnberry did not purchase the RMBS at issue from SunTrust, it was not a customer of the SunTrust unit that underwrote the securities and therefore could not compel SunTrust to arbitrate. Turnberry had purchased the securities at issue from the brokerage firm Raymond James & Associates, Inc. Decision.
SunTrust
Independent Foreclosure Review
On November 1, the OCC announced that, in connection with the enforcement actions taken against 14 large mortgage servicers in April 2011, borrowers with foreclosure proceedings on their primary residences initiated by those servicers between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2010 can request an independent consultant to review the potential foreclosure deficiencies if the borrowers believe they have suffered financial injury as a result of errors, misrepresentations, or other deficiencies in foreclosure proceedings. The Fed also announced that the four large mortgage servicers subject to enforcement actions that are supervised by the Fed (GMAC, HSBC, SunTrust, and EMC) will be required to conduct this program as part of their compliance with Fed procedures. The independent review is free of charge for borrowers. Requests for review by the servicers’ independent consultants must be received by April 30, 2012. OCC Release. Fed Release.