GLENDALE, Calif. -- Credit union attorney Joe Melchione and American Credit Union Mortgage Association President Bob Dorsa both said credit unions that did business with Countrywide Financial Corporation shouldn't worry about recent lawsuits filed by the states of California and Illinois against the nation's largest mortgage lender.
"I haven't had a chance to look at the complaint, and I'm not likely to, because I don't believe many credit unions were involved in the kind of aggressive lending that's the subject of this litigation," he said. Melchione is a partner at law firm Styskal, Wiese & Melchione, which counts about 350 credit unions as clients, the majority of which are located in Countrywide's home state of California.
"We will have to wait and see how it shakes out; but by and large, I haven't seen our credit unions being too intimately involved with these kinds of loans, and they were certainly not named in the suit," Melchione added.
Dorsa said credit union liability is low, because most credit unions had only a correspondent lending relationship with Countrywide.
"Probably the only good thing that came out of that relationship, other than the service release premiums, is that when credit unions sold those loans, they relinquished all their rights," Dorsa said.
