Bank of America will pay Fannie Mae $11.6 billion
NEW YORK – Bank of America reached an $11.6 billion settlement with government mortgage agency Fannie Mae to settle claims resulting from mortgage-backed investments that soured during the housing crash, bringing it a step closer to clearing up its legacy of bad home loans.
Under the deal announced Monday, Bank of America will pay $3.6 billion in cash to Fannie Mae and buy back $6.75 billion in loans that the bank and its Countrywide Financial unit sold to the agency from Jan. 1, 2000, through Dec. 31, 2008. That includes about 30,000 loans. The bank is also paying $1.3 billion to the agency for failing to deal with foreclosures fast enough.
For Bank of America, its settlement with Fannie Mae over the mortgage investments represents “a significant step” in resolving the bank’s remaining mortgage problems, Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan said in a statement. Moynihan’s predecessor, Ken Lewis, bought Countrywide, a troubled mortgage-lending giant, in July 2008 just as the financial crisis was taking hold.
The settlement represents “another step closer to normal,” for Bank of America, Wells Fargo analyst Matt Burnell wrote in a note to clients. Burnell said the deal was good for the bank because it resolved a dispute with a government agency and will likely reduce the provisions it has to set aside to cover claims from investors over faulty mortgages that were sold with incorrect data on home values or income.
Bank of America’s acquisition of Countrywide was initially praised by lawmakers because the lender was seen as stepping in to support the mortgage industry. However, instead of boosting Bank of America’s mortgage business, the purchase has drawn a drumbeat of regulatory fines, lawsuits and losses.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac buy mortgages from banks and package them together as bonds that they sell to investors. During the housing boom, banks sold loans to the two agencies that should never have been issued, because the banks failed to carry out the necessary diligence before making them. For example, banks sometimes failed to adequately check whether customers had stated their income correctly.
The government agencies, which were effectively nationalized in 2008 when they nearly collapsed under the weight of their mortgage losses, have been demanding that banks buy back some of the mortgage-backed investments.
In September, Bank of America also agreed to pay $2.43 billion to settle a class-action lawsuit related to its takeover of Merrill Lynch, another of Lewis’ acquisitions during the financial crisis. That lawsuit was filed on behalf of investors who bought or held Bank of America stock when the company announced its plans to buy Merrill Lynch in a $20 billion deal as the banking industry and federal regulators struggled to contain fallout from the financial crisis in the fall of 2008.
The Charlotte, N. C.-based bank said it would pay for the Fannie Mae settlement in part from existing reserves, though it would record a $2.7 billion hit to its fourth quarter earnings for 2012 from the settlement and the loan servicing fees, as well as taking a charge of $2.5 billion for the settlement over wrongful foreclosure practices.