On January 31, Justice Barbara R. Kapnick of the Supreme Court of New York for New York County approved, with one exception, an US$8.5 billion settlement between Bank of America and a group of RMBS investors.  The Bank of New York Mellon, acting as the trustee for trusts that in the aggregate issued US$424 billion in RMBS backed by mortgages originated by Countrywide, entered into an agreement with Bank of America in 2011 to resolve claims alleging breaches of representations and warranties and alleged violations of prudent servicing obligations.  After more than two years of State and Federal Court proceedings, Justice Kapnick approved the settlement, and found that BNY Mellon as Trustee did not abuse its discretion or act in bad faith or outside the bounds of reasonable judgment in reaching the settlement, except to agree to the settlement of certain loan modification claims, which the Court did not approve.  The Court declined to approve the compromise of the loan modification claims based on its conclusion that BNY Mellon settled those claims “without investigating their potential worth or strength.” Order.