Bank of America’s quarterly earnings release essentially glossed over the firm’s legal issues, an omission that's somewhat misleading because of their probable significant impact on the bank profits.  Like its peers, BofA faces a wave of lawsuits from institutional investors and others who want the firm to repurchase billions of dollars in bad mortgages.  And, the bank has said it could spend anywhere from $7 billion to $10 billion buying back troubled loans.

Bank of America, instead, chose to address the issue in three separate releases today, according to NYT Dealbook.

        In one release ... BofA announced it had created a new position, the Global Chief of Legal, Compliance, and Regulatory Relations.  Filling that role will be Gary Lynch, formerly of Morgan Stanley.

        In another release ... BofA said it had reached a settled repurchase claims with Assured Guaranty, a monoline insurer.  As part of the agreement, the bank made a $1.1 billion cash payment.  The total bill for deal ran an estimated $1.6 billion, which the company had accounted for by the end of the first quarter.

        On page 21 of the Q1 earnings release ... BofA highlights that Q1 repurchase claims jumped to $13.6 billion, up from $10.7 billion in the previous quarter.  The biggest spike came from government-sponsored entities - Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac et al.  The bank has already paid out some $3 billion to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  Outstanding claims by such firms rose to $5.3 billion, up from $2.8 billion in Q4 of 2010 - reflecting “new claims” that were “not covered” by the previous agreements, the company said.  As a result, the bank’s potential hit on the claims increased, too.  Bank of America’s liability increased by $800 million in Q1, bringing the total amount to $6.2 billion - up from $3.3 billion in the same period of 2010.   [NYT Dealbook, 4/15]