Bank of America has agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by investors who bought mortgage investments from Countrywide Financial, the California-based lender it acquired in 2008.
The announcement came as America's second biggest bank reported higher net income for the first quarter, but missed analysts' expectations.
The bank said it would pay $500m to settle the lawsuit brought by the Maine State Retirement System and other pension funds who said Countrywide had misled them about the quality of the mortgages they bundled together and sold to investors.
The settlement is the latest reminder of the long fallout of Bank of America's decision to buy Countrywide, which was known for making exotic loans.
The purchase catapulted the bank into a spot at the top of the nation's mortgage scene, but it has been an albatross ever since, bringing lawsuits, regulatory investigations and quarterly losses.
Bank of America made the settlement announcement while reporting first-quarter results. Its profit soared but analysts described the quarter as ''noisy'' because of accounting charges that affected results.
Revenue for the quarter dipped slightly, while profits missed expectations.
The North Carolina-based bank reported earnings after paying preferred dividends of $2.3 billion in the first quarter. That was up nearly seven times from earnings of $328 million a year ago.
However, the 2012 results were also obscured by an accounting rule that forced the bank to record a charge because the value of its debt had risen.
Mortgages and wealth management helped this quarter's results. Loans fell while deposits and credit card spending rose.
The bank funded $25 billion in mortgages, a jump of 56% from a year ago. More than 90% came from refinancings. The overall mortgage unit continued to lose money, though, weighed down by legal costs.
The bank said it continued to cut jobs and other expenses, adding that it cut nearly 16,000 jobs over the year, or nearly 6% of its work force.
"We feel like we made a lot of progress this quarter, and there's a lot more to do," chief financial officer Bruce Thompson said.
The bank's first quarter revenue came to $23.9 billion after stripping out an accounting charge. That was down 8% from last year, but it beat analysts' expectations of $23.3 billion.
