Not Enough

Five years after the financial crisis, Bank of America, the second-biggest US bank by assets, has agreed to pay 11.6 billion dollars to Fannie Mae, the government-controlled mortgage company, to resolve a protracted legal battle over bad loans.

In a separate settlement, 10 mortgage lenders, including Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup, agreed to pay more than 8 billion dollars to settle regulators’ allegations that they were guilty of widespread abuse of the foreclosure system that allowed banks to seize homes from defaulting borrowers.

The two settlements add to the tens of billions of dollars banks have already paid out in fines and compensation for lax lending standards and the unseemly manner in which they dealt with home repossessions.