Bank of America agrees to $8.5 bn in mortgage claims

Bank of America said on Wednesday it would pay $8.5 billion dollars to clear claims from the home-loan crisis, take a charge of $5.5 billion and said it expected a quarterly net loss of up to $9.1 billion. "We will continue to act aggressively, and in the best interest of our shareholders, to clean up the mortgage issues largely stemming from our purchase of Countrywide," chief executive Brian Moynihan said. "This is another important step we are taking in the interest of our shareholders to minimize the impact of future economic uncertainty and put legacy issues behind us."