The National Credit Union Administration this week filed a suite of lawsuits against more than a dozen international megabanks, alleging that those institutions’ involvement in the sale of faulty securities and manipulation of the LIBOR hurt corporate credit unions in America.

In the first prong of lawsuits filed in Federal District Court in New York, the NCUA charged that nine institutions – including Morgan Stanley & Co., Barclays, J.P. Morgan/Bear Stearns, Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS – sold faulty securities to corporate credit unions, resulting in the failure of five corporate credit unions that had purchased bad mortgage-backed securities.

The NCUA’s suits, which make claims under either federal or state securities laws, allege that the firms made misrepresentations in connection with the underwriting and subsequent sale of the mortgage-backed securities. The corporate credit unions became insolvent, were subsequently placed into NCUA conservatorship and later liquidated as a result of losses from these faulty securities. These failures subsequently caused significant losses to the credit union system.

Separately, the NCUA also filed suit in Federal District Court in Kansas against 13 international banks, including J.P. Morgan Chase, over their involvement in manipulating interest rates through the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) system.

The NCUA said the manipulation of LIBOR resulted in a loss of income from investments and other assets held by five failed corporate credit unions: U.S. Central, WesCorp, Members United, Southwest and Constitution.

More than 40 suits have been filed in relation to the LIBOR manipulation, and the NCUA said it is one of the first federal financial regulators to sue in this area.