The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s legal assault on Wall Street moved closer to a merciful end for the banks on Wednesday, when Bank of America Corp. retreated to the tune of $9.5 billion. The FHFA’s lawyers, led by Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan’s Philippe Selendy, have now racked up more than $20 billion in settlements after winning a spate of rulings that left the defendants with few options.
Wedesday’s settlement resolves the FHFA’s claims that BofA and two of its subsidiaries, Merrill Lynch & Co. and Countrywide Financial Corp., misled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in connection with the sale of mortgage-backed securities. FHFA brought those claims as part of a batch of 18 separate lawsuits against big banks filed in the summer of 2011. BofA will pay a combined $6.3 billion in cash, and will also pay $3.2 billion to purchase mortgage-backed securities from Fannie and Freddie.
