Source: ''Holdout states to sign mortgage settlement with banks over foreclosure abuses''

"Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citibank and Ally Financial agreed to the settlement — for an estimated $37 billion as of Wednesday for lowering homeowners’ mortgage principal, refinancing, a reserve account, and checks to homeowners. However, they were seeking releases from further legal liability, which have been one subject of negotiations for the past several days with state attorneys general who wanted to pursue investigations.

The source said the agreement will enable authorities to pursue all claims over mortgage-backed securities that collapsed. It lets them use facts from robo-signing claims in securities, insurance and tax fraud cases.

It also preserves the lawsuit filed last week by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman that accused some banks of deceit and fraud in using an electronic mortgage registry that allegedly put homeowners at a disadvantage in foreclosures."

from wapo...