(Adds Wells Fargo declining comment)
By Nate Raymond
NEW YORK, Dec 24 (Reuters) - Commerzbank AG hassued four banks in the United States, claiming that they failedto properly monitor billions of dollars in toxic mortgage-backedsecurities acquired by the German lender before the 2008financial crisis.
Bank of New York Mellon Corp and units of DeutscheBank AG, Wells Fargo & Co and HSBC HoldingsPlc were named in the lawsuits filed on Wednesday andThursday in Manhattan federal court.
BNY Mellon was the trustee for over $1 billion inmortgage-backed securities bought by Commerzbank and $1.3billion of investments tied to a collateralized debt obligation,Millstone II CDO, court documents showed.
BNY Mellon "abandoned its obligations to protect the rightsof investors" and did nothing to protect the collateralunderlying the CDO, Commerzbank said, noting that it suffered$750 million in losses.
Commerzbank made similar claims involving mortgage-backedsecurities of $640 million in the Deutsche Bank case; $290million for Wells Fargo; and $204 million for HSBC.
Representatives for BNY Mellon, Deutsche Bank and WellsFargo declined to comment. A representative for HSBC did notrespond to a request for comment.
The cases in the U.S. District Court, Southern District ofNew York, are Commerzbank AG v. The Bank of New York Mellon, No.15-10029; Commerzbank AG v. Deutsche Bank National TrustCompany, No. 15-10031; Commerzbank AG v. Wells Fargo Bank N.A.,No. 15-10033; and Commerzbank AG v. HSBC Bank USA, NationalAssociation, No. 15-10032. (Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by RichardChang and Dan Grebler)