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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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(Boston Globe) Thousands of black and Latino homeowners in Massachusetts will likely save money under a $125 million subprime lending settlement with a subsidiary of H&R Block Inc. unveiled today by attorney general Martha Coakley. The agreement resolves allegations of unfair lending and discriminatory practices by Sand Canyon, formerly known as Option One.

Under the deal, Sand Canyon, based in Irvine, Calif., will pay $9.8 million to the state and direct American Home Mortgage Servicing Inc. — which services about 5,500 loans in Massachusetts that originated with Option One — to begin a $115 million loan modification program.

Homeowners with Option One loans could receive lower monthly payments, andinterest rates, and have their principal balances reduced to reflect current property values. In addition, some borrrowers will receive refunds for fees they paid that the state considered excessive.

“Option One made loans that it knew were likely to fail and it discriminated against African-American and Latino borrowers,” Coakley said during a press conference.

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(CNN Money) The mortgage meltdown is hitting the African-American and Latino communities harder than whites, a new study has found.

Of borrowers who took out mortgages between 2005 and 2008, some 8% of both African-American and Latino borrowers have lost their homes to foreclosure, compared to 4.5% of non-Hispanic whites, according to a study by the Center for Responsible Lending, released Friday.

The racial and ethnic disparities continued even after controlling for income differences. The center’s research shows that African-American and Latino borrowers were about 30% more likely to get higher-rate subprime loans than white borrowers with similiar risk characteristics.

Of the total pool of homeowners, 17% of Latinos have lost their homes to foreclosure or are at imminent risk of losing their homes, while 11% of African-Americans are in that position. By comparison, 7% of non-Hispanic whites have lost their homes or are about to.

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