JPMorgan Chase & Co. resumed settlement talks with the U.S. after authorities prepared to sue the bank yesterday in California federal court alleging it misrepresented the quality of mortgage-backed securities it sold from 2005 to 2007, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The government told JPMorgan that it was ready to file a complaint yesterday. Soon after, talks restarted between the bank and Justice Department officials over a possible settlement. JPMorgan is seeking to negotiate an accord resolving mortgage-bond investigations being conducted by federal and state authorities, including probes by the U.S. attorneys in Sacramento, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. The bank had also tried to settle a $6 billion claim by the Federal Housing Finance Agency and an investigation by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who sued the company in October over mortgage bonds packaged by Bear Stearns Cos., which JPMorgan acquired in 2008.
