Bank of America (BAC) Gets Big 'No' From Countrywide Investors

Several large institutional investors have rejected a court settlement where Countrywide Financial Corp. had agreed to pay $600 million to a number of national pension funds.

Those pulling out of the agreement include BlackRock Inc.; the California Public Employees Retirement System, or Calpers; T. Rowe Price Group Inc.; Nuveen Investments Inc.; and the Maryland State Retirement and Pension System, according to a document from the suit filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

The investors decided the settlement, initially agreed to last May, wasn't enough and will seek their own terms with the mortgage originator and its current owner Bank of America Corp. (NYSE:BAC), as well as Countrywide's auditor KPMG LLP. KPMG had committed another $24 million to the settlement.

A spokesman for New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, who represented the massive New York State Common Retirement Fund in the litigation, said the fund intends to remain part of the "very reasonable settlement." Ola Fadahunsi, the spokesman, noted the comptroller's office is "very happy" with the work of its counsel on the case.






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