$25B Mortgage Settlement Filed

The settlement with the five largest mortgage lenders is finally official. Under the deal, banks will have to pay roughly $20 billion to help borrowers avoid foreclosure, plus another $5 billion in cash to federal and state governments. They won't, however, have to admit wrongdoing, despite some highly suspect practices detailed in the government’s investigation. According to the report, managers at major banks told employees to adopt make-believe titles and rush applications through the system despite objections. One vice president at Bank of America said her department checked only for “formatting and spelling errors,” not the facts of the mortgage.