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The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals says NCUA can continue to pursue its lawsuit against Wachovia Trust and Nomura Home Equity over faulty residential mortgage-backed securities they sold to the now-defunct Western Corporate Federal Credit Union.

The appeals court decision, filed Monday, overturns a district court ruling that denied NCUA's claim on the basis that it had not filed its lawsuit in a timely manner. In this week's ruling, the appeals court found that the Extender Statute of the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act supersedes the requirement cited by the district court, which held that the suit should have been brought within three years after the security was offered or sold.

In April, NCUA announced that all its recoveries from the downfall of five corporate credit unions exceeded $3.1 billion. Net proceeds are used to pay claims against five failed corporate credit unions, including those of the Temporary Corporate Credit Union Stabilization Fund, and are expected to provide some offset to the assessments credit unions have paid for stabilization. NCUA has said that any refund on past assessments would not be made before the program concludes in 2021.

In May, the TCCUSF made a payment to Treasury of $700 million, which brought down the fund's outstanding borrowing with Treasury to $1 billion.

NCUA still has several other lawsuits pending. NAFCU continues to urge NCUA to pursue all avenues available to offset the costs for credit unions of corporate stabilization.