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(Miami Herald) In the largest residential fair-lending settlement in history, the Bank of America Corp. has agreed to pay $335 million to settle allegations that its Countrywide Financial Corp. unit discriminated against minority homebuyers, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday.

The agreement resolves a civil complaint that the mortgage lender charged black and Hispanic borrowers higher fees and steered them into costlier mortgages than other buyers from 2004 to 2008, a period when the company originated millions of home loans.

It also marks Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America’s latest step to move past the mortgage-related troubles that have pummeled its bottom line and stock price since acquiring Countrywide in 2008.

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(Marketwire) Bank of America has been named as a defendant in a class action lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, Central District, on behalf of hundreds of LA homeowners and investors who lost millions of dollars in a highly complex Ponzi scheme run by one of Los Angeles' most notorious fraud operators, Juan Rangel.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the mostly Latino plaintiffs by the law firms of Pearson, Simon, Warshaw & Penny, LLP; Capretz & Associates; and Girardi & Keese, alleges that Bank of America employees as well as bank management were aware or should have been aware of the Ponzi scheme and despite such knowledge provided banking services to Juan Rangel and his associates. Notably, Dony Gonzalez, a former Bank of America branch manager was indicted and pled guilty to receipt of bribes by Juan Rangel.

The lawsuit alleges that from about November 2007 to July 2008, Rangel used his firm, Financial Plus Investments, as well as other financial companies he owned, to defraud middle-class working families through investment, mortgage and foreclosure rescue schemes that netted Rangel about $30 million. Rangel's firms shut down in July 2008 and Rangel was arrested by federal agents in August 2008.

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(Business Wire) Bank of America today announced a commitment to increase its spending with small, medium-sized and diverse businesses, pledging to purchase $10 billion in products and services from those companies over five years, with the spending amount expected to grow by an average of more than 5 percent each year.

“What businesses of all sizes are telling us they need most right now is more business,” said Brian T. Moynihan, president and chief executive officer, Bank of America. “In addition to extending credit and providing technical assistance and a full range of banking services to our clients, we want to increase our support by purchasing more of their products and services, particularly from small, medium-sized and diverse businesses — coast to coast and across a wide range of industries. We hope other large companies will do the same.”

Small, medium-sized and diverse businesses provide the bank with a broad range of valuable services and products, including advertising, furniture, cleaning, courier service, home inspections, legal services, landscaping, maintenance, photography, security and software.

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