Bank of America to pay $8.5 billion to settle bad mortgage-backed securities claims

[JURIST] Bank of America (BOA) [corporate website] announced Wednesday that it has agreed to pay $8.5 billion [press release] to settle claims that it sold bad securities contributing to the housing market collapse. The securities, called first-lien residential mortgage-backed securitization, were issued by the BOA unit Countrywide Financial Corporation [corporate website], which it purchased [AP report] for $4 billion in 2008. The settlement is only a small portion of the original principal balance of $424 billion covering 530 trusts with…