U.S. Banks See Rising Investor-Refund Demands

Claims from investors for loans originated in 2009 or later more than tripled to $153 million from a year earlier for New York-based JPMorgan, the biggest U.S. bank by assets, and almost tripled to $164 million for Bank of America, according to their third-quarter reports. The firms also said claims increased for loans made in 2005, before the housing bubble peaked.

The demands may signal that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-back mortgage finance companies, are becoming more aggressive in their quest for refunds as bad home loans spread to more recent years. Regulators have blamed record defaults and foreclosures on lax underwriting from 2004 through most of 2008. Lenders have said they've tightened standards since then.

"This is really surprising," said Chris Gamaitoni, a mortgage and banking analyst at Compass Point Research and Trading LLC, adding that banks have been telling investors that delinquencies weren't as bad for loans originated after the bubble years. "Maybe the banks didn't really tighten until 2010," Gamaitoni said.