Chase Completes Settlement Obligation Ahead of Schedule

JPMorgan Chase has satisfied its $4 billion consumer relief obligation under the terms of a November 2013 settlement over the sales of toxic residential mortgage-backed securities to investors leading up to the crisis, according to a report from independent monitor Joseph A. Smith, Jr., released Wednesday.

The report released by Smith on Wednesday was the ninth and final report from his office on the progress of Chase toward fulfilling its settlement obligation. In that report, Smith credited the bank with providing a total of $4,063,880,724 billion in consumer relief to 168,960 borrowers as of March 31, 2016.

Chase paid off its settlement obligation a year and nine months early—under the terms of the settlement, the bank had until December 31, 2017, to pay it off.

The consumer relief was administered in three categories—modification or forgiveness/forbearance ($2.02 billion to 44,500 borrowers), rate reduction ($874 million to 34,700 borrowers), and low- to moderate-income (LMI) and disaster area lending ($1.17 billion to 89,700 borrowers). In the latter category, $476.5 million of the relief came in the form of lending to 41,400 first-time LMI homebuyers.

“We are pleased to have fulfilled our requirements under the settlement,” Chase said in a statement. “The $20 billion in consumer relief we’ve provided to customers over the last several years is part of our ongoing efforts to help families and communities that may be struggling.”

Chase settled with the government in November 2013 for a then-record $13 billion amid claims that the bank, along with Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual, sold faulty residential mortgage-backed securities to investors prior to the financial crisis. Chase was required to make $9 billion in direct payments to government agencies and five states and provide $4 billion in consumer relief under the settlement.