Bank of America Corp. (BAC) and the U.S. Justice Department have agreed on a deal that that closes the government's probe into whether its Countrywide Financial unit ("CWF") violated fair-lending practices.  BofA has agreed to pay a record $335 million to settle civil charges that it discriminated against minority homebuyers, a historic settlement for the Obama administration in the wake of the subprime mortgage morass. The settlement covers conduct between 2004 and 2008 before the acquisition of Countrywide by Bank of America, and involves a range of alleged wrongdoing including charging African-Americans and Hispanics higher interest rates and fees and steering some to more expensive subprime mortgages.