Royal Bank of Scotland to Pay $153.7 Million to Settle Mortgage Case

The S.E.C. concluded that a bank subsidiary, R.B.S. Securities, backed the offering with subprime loans that fell far short of underwriting guidelines. The subsidiary, called Greenwich Capital Markets at the time, bought the loans in 2007 from Option One Mortgage Corporation. Under its deal with Option One, a subsidiary of H&R Block, R.B.S. had to buy the loans by April 30 of that year. Hurrying to close the deal, the S.E.C. said, R.B.S. failed to fully investigate the quality of the underlying mortgages... Eventually, R.B.S. turned the loans into a $2.2 billion offering.