The Justice Department today will announce a settlement with Bank of America Corp. involving allegations of discriminatory lending practices by its Countrywide Financial Corp. unit, people familiar with the matter say.
The settlement involves allegedly abusive mortgage-lending practices that predate the 2008 acquisition of Countrywide by Bank of America. The settlement will involve a cash penalty, according to these people, who declined to specify the amount. A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment. A spokesman for Bank of America Corp. didn't immediately return phone calls.
The Justice Department has pushed fair-lending cases particularly hard in the past two years, after establishing a special unit in 2010. It has settled 10 investigations for more than $30 million so far, but mostly with smaller lenders.
Thomas Perez, the assistant attorney general in charge of the Civil Rights division, said last month the perception the government was focusing only on smaller lenders was unfair and untrue. Perez cited the investigation into Countrywide and "other large lenders" as evidence that Justice is targeting lenders of all size.
Perez said fair lending cases, and particularly cases on redlining and pricing, were a main focus.
