Other mortgage fights, including repurchase demands from private investors, could hammer future financial results.
The bank took a charge of $2.7 billion because of the Fannie Mae settlement and a $1.1 billion charge for the foreclosure settlement, among other charges.
That sent earnings down sharply, a result that Bank of America had already warned about. The bank made $367 million in the last three months of 2012 after paying preferred dividends, down sharply from $1.6 billion in the same period a year ago. Those earnings amounted to 3 cents per share. Bank of America's stock fell 50 cents, or 4.2 percent, to close at $11.28 Thursday.
Revenue was also dragged down by the Fannie Mae settlement. Revenue dropped to $19.6 billion after stripping out an accounting charge, down from $26.4 billion in the same period a year ago.
The bank has been cutting jobs and other expenses. The number of employees fell to 267,190, down about 14,600 jobs since a year ago.
Analysts called it another quarter of earnings sacrificed to working through the mortgage problems. "Making expensive progress" is how Nomura analyst Glenn Schorr characterized the quarter.
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