Bank of America signed a $315 million mortgage settlement

The largest settlement of investor claims against banks’ is ready to be signed by Bank of America. The amount the nation’s second largest bank by assets agreed to pay is $315 million, to settle claims of mislead investors, who purchased apparently safe MBS offered by BofA’s Merrill Lynch unit, Reuters reported.

According to information published by the news agency the settlement was disclosed publicly late Monday night in court papers filed in US District Court in Manhattan, and the settlement requires approval by Judge Jed Rakoff.

The amount Bank of America is ready to pay will wipe off investors claims over Merrill misleading the about the risks of the $16.5 billion of MBS’s in 18 offerings made between 2006 and 2007, before Bank of America took over Merill. And in this case BofA’s attitude denying any wrongdoing is kind of justified. But if we compared the amounts, we can see how easily banks can re-write history: they caused $16.5 billion in losses to investors, who are making efforts to hold these banks accountable, and they agree to pay $315 million.

The group of investors accepting the amount is led by the Public Employees’ Retirement System of Mississippi fund, who said the offering documents misled them about the quality of the loans backing their investments, and the investments did not deserve the investment-grade ratings they once had. The investments were backed by risky loans originated by Countrywide, Merrill’s First Franklin Financial unit and IndyMac Bancorp In and New Century Financial Corp., according to Reuters.