UPDATE 2-US regulator sues JPMorgan over WaMu mortgage securities

By Aruna Viswanatha WASHINGTON, Jan 4 (Reuters) - The U.S. credit unionregulator sued JPMorgan and Washington Mutual lateFriday over $2.2 billion in mortgage securities sold to creditunions that collapsed because of losses from the securities. The suit is the third the regulator, the National CreditUnion Administration, has filed against JPMorgan involvingmortgage losses, and the second in the past month. In December, it sued the bank over $3.6 billion insecurities sold by Bear Stearns, which JPMorgan acquired duringthe financial crisis. In June 2011, the NCUA sued over some $1.4billion in securities in which JPMorgan was the underwriter andseller. Both suits are still pending. JPMorgan bought the assets of Washington Mutual in 2008after it failed and was seized by regulators. In Friday's lawsuit, the NCUA accused the bank of makingmisrepresentations in underwriting and selling mortgage-backedsecurities to U.S. Central, Western Corporate and SouthwestCorporate federal credit unions. The three credit unions became insolvent on the losses andwere placed into NCUA conservatorship, the agency said. "The damage caused by the actions of firms like WashingtonMutual has been extremely expensive to contain and repair," NCUAboard chairman Debbie Matz said in a statement announcing thelawsuit, adding that "it's only right that the people who causedthe damage be required to pick up that burden, as well." The lawsuit adds to a growing list of cases JPMorgan, thelargest U.S. bank, is fighting over conduct tied to thefinancial crisis, including the conduct of entities it acquiredat the height of the crisis. A JPMorgan representative declined comment. SIMILAR ACTIONS In the past two years the agency has brought similar actionsagainst Barclays Capital, Credit Suisse,Goldman Sachs, RBS Securities, UBS Securities, Wachovia and others. Most of the cases are pending, but it has settled claimsagainst Citigroup, Deutsche Bank Securities andHSBC for around $170 million. The credit union regulator has been trying to recover lossesrelated to the failure of five institutions that it seized in2009 and 2010 after they ran into trouble due to the crumblinghousing market. The wholesale credit unions have experienced more troublesthan their retail counterparts because they did not face thesame restrictions on permitted investments, leading to biglosses during the financial crisis.