Tag Archives: Bank of America

Bank of America reported on Wednesday its earnings for the third quarter, revealing that profits tanked under the weight of a massive legal charge stemming from a recent mortgage settlement with the Justice Department. Factoring in the settlement, BofA's mortgage unit was the only one of its five businesses that didn't see income grow over the last year.

The ongoing legal battle between the U.S. government and Bank of America over the sale of soured loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before the financial meltdown continued last week as lawyers for the government argued against a motion to throw out a fraud verdict rendered against the bank.

Just less than 19,000 tracked mortgage jobs were cut in April, May, and June, according to Mortgage Daily, with more than 20,000 job losses offsetting about 1,600 gains. The net loss is a major jump from the 8,100 reported losses in the first quarter and the nearly 3,000 reported a year ago. All of the reported cuts in the second quarter happened at banks, with credit unions and other non-banks adding jobs.

Lawyers for Bank of America have filed to overturn a jury verdict last year that held the bank liable for fraud over faulty mortgage-backed securities sold by its Countrywide unit. In their motion, BofA's lawyers argue the government failed to prove the loans involved in the case were advertised as being higher quality than they were.

Bank of America announced Thursday morning it has agreed to pay a record $16.65 billion to resolve claims of financial fraud in the sale of toxic mortgage-backed securities during the years leading up the financial crisis.

Based on data collected from April through June, Mortgage Daily reported a 24 percent quarterly increase in mortgage originations to an estimated $296 billion among all lenders as of June 30. Production still fell short 51 percent on an annual basis as consumer demand for mortgages remained anemic and credit standards stayed tight.

With the second-quarter earnings season mostly done, financial services firm Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW) reports that mortgage bankers tracked in its coverage saw a 22 percent increase in volumes from the first quarter to the second. "We view the mortgage results for the banks that have already reported 2Q earnings as largely in line with expectations," KBW commented.

Bank of America and the Justice Department are close to completing a long-rumored and record-setting deal to resolve allegations of misconduct sales of mortgage-backed securities that went bad, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.

A federal judge has ordered Bank of America to pay nearly $1.3 billion in penalties over a fraud case decided last year. The case revolved around a lending procedure referred to as the "High-Speed Swim Lane, "which prosecutors say was designed to churn out loans as quickly as possible with little regard for risk.

Bank of Americaposted second-quarter net income of $2.3 billion on revenue of $22.0 billion. A year ago, the megabank reported bringing $4.0 billion. The bulk of the year-over-year drop in profits stemmed from a $4.0 billion litigation expense, "substantially all" of which was related to legacy mortgage-related matters, the bank said.