Bank Of America, Mortgage | featured news

Bank of America is reportedly willing to pay its way out of future mortgage and foreclosure claims.

Bank of America Corp and JPMorgan Chase & Co have started modifying tens of thousands of mortgages where the banks deem the loans especially risky, even if the borrowers have not asked, the New York Times reported on Sunday.

Bank of America Corp is working to improve profits by reducing its number of problem mortgages and cutting other costs, Chief Executive Brian Moynihan told shareholders on Wednesday. Moynihan, speaking at the company's annual meeting in downtown Charlotte, said the mortgage business of the largest U.S. bank by assets is "still struggling mightily" as it slowly crawls out from under the billions in soured home loans.

Moody's downgraded Bank of America's underlying mortgage-servicing ratings to reflect the challenges the bank continues to face with the integration of Countrywide.

Bank of America Corp's Countrywide mortgage unit has been sued by investors claiming they were victimized in a "massive fraud" when they bought mortgage-backed securities.

In a ruling that may affect foreclosures nationwide, the Massachusetts high court has voided the seizure of two homes by Wells Fargo & Company and US Bancorp after the banks failed to show that they held the mortgages at the time of the foreclosures.

Allstate Corp has sued Bank of America Corp and 18 other defendants over losses it said it suffered on more than $700 million of mortgage debt it bought from Countrywide Financial Corp.

Bank of America Corp has started negotiating with powerful mortgage investors that accused the bank of failing to buy back bad home loans, in an apparent shift in the lender's stance.

Bank of America, the country's largest mortgage lender by assets, said on Friday that it was reviewing documents in all of its pending foreclosure cases to evaluate if there were errors made.

Permanent modifications, which lower mortgage payments to 31% of a borrower's pretax monthly income for five years, have been given to only about a third of the 1.3 million borrowers in trial plans since the program's launch in April 2009. Most of the lawsuits allege that the three- or four-month trial payment plans are contracts, and that Bank of America and other servicers broke them by not giving permanent modifications to homeowners who made their trial payments on time and provided the necessary documentation.