Reuters- U.S. regulators, led by the Securities and Exchange Commission, are probing how financial firms priced mortgage securities on their books and whether they should have told investors earlier about the declining value of those securities, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
The SEC is examining UBS AG and Morgan Stanley , in addition to previously reported investigations of Merrill Lynch & Co Inc and Bear Stearns Co Inc , the Journal said, citing people close to the situation.
The SEC has set up a working group to tackle some three dozen probes, which are in their early stages, the article said.
Regulators are also looking at whether the Wall Street firms put higher values on their own securities than on the ones they assigned to customers’ holdings, the Journal reported.
