Bank of America

The $335 million that Bank of America has agreed to pay to resolve Justice Department allegations of lending discrimination by Countrywide Financial Corporation is an enormous development – it is the largest residential fair lending settlement in history, resolving allegations that Countrywide (now owned by Bank of America) engaged in a “widespread pattern or practice of discrimination against qualified African-American and Hispanic borrow

In response to customer feedback and the changing competitive marketplace, Bank of America now says that it no longer intends to implement a debit usage fee. 

We will be hearing a lot about this today, but Bank of America Corporation is first out of the box with news that it has agreed to settle nearly all of its Countrywide-issued first-lien residential mortgage-backed securitization (RMBS) repurchase exposure, representing 530 trusts with original principal balance of $424 billion.

Earlier today, we noted that Bank of America Settles Charges Of Illegally Foreclosing on Servicemembers. Assistant Attorney General Thomas E.

New York has filed two new major securities fraud lawsuits – but they didn’t come from Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s office. Instead, the state Comptroller, Thomas P. DiNapoli, as trustee of the $132.6 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund, brought the suits against Merrill Lynch and Bank of America, claiming they violated federal securities laws.

There already are a number of good articles on the Web exploring Judge Rakoff’s “grudging” approval of the SEC/Bank of America $150 million settlement relating to B of A’s Merrill Lynch acquisition.

Federal Judge Jed Rakoff has approved the SEC/Bank of America settlement arising from B of A’s merger with Merrill Lynch.“This court, while shaking its head, grants the S.E.C.’s motion and approves the proposed consent judgment,” the court wrote.  

More to follow….

The Times today also has a good summary of yesterday’s hearing in Judge Rakoff’s courtroom to consider the proposed SEC/Bank of America settlement. Will the judge say yea, or nay?

The first reports about the hearing being held right now by federal District Court Judge Jed Rakoff on the proposed $150 million settlement between the SEC and Bank of America are available at http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-02-08/bank-of-america-judge-hears-arguments-over-150-million-accord.html and http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=9779848

Federal District Court Judge Jed Rakoff, who issued an important decision on Friday in the Dreier cases about which we just blogged, has a 2 p.m. hearing scheduled today to consider a motion by the Securities and Exchange Commission to approve a $150 million settlement with the Bank of America. The judge previously rejected other efforts to settle SEC/B of A disputes, and it will be very interesting to see what he has to say about this proposal.