Bank of America Corp. will pay $375 million to settle a lawsuit that charged the bank's Countrywide Financial unit misrepresented the mortgage-backed securities insured by Syncora Guarantee.
Reuters reports that Syncora Guarantee, a unit of Syncora Holdings Ltd., sued Countrywide and Bank of America in 2009 in an attempt to recover billions of dollars in losses stemming from problematic Countrywide loans. Bank of America purchased Countrywide in 2008.
‘Countrywide, consistent with its business practices at the time, systematically ignored its own underwriting guidelines and made imprudent loans that no reasonable underwriter would have made,’ Syncora said in its original complaint.
Bank of America declined to comment on the settlement.