The Securities and Exchange Commission is examining whether these banks misled shareholders about the number of loans they might be forced to buy back because of early defaults, the newspaper quoted the people as saying.

The commission is also probing whether the banks set aside sufficient reserves to fund those purchases or handle related litigation, Financial Times said.

The SEC has been widening its investigation into mortgage-bond deals that ushered in the financial crisis and has involved companies such as Citigroup (C.N) and JPMorgan (JPM.N) among others.

JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs had earlier settled similar matters with the SEC. [ID:nN1E75K13Z]

Credit Suisse had been subpoenaed by the SEC early in May for documents related to securitized home loans and was sued by MBIA Inc.(MBI.N) [ID:nN05244262]

RBS and Credit Suisse were unavailable for immediate comment. The SEC had no comment, (Reporting by Chris Jonathan Peters in Bangalore; Editing by Bernard Orr)