Bank of America Corp.'s Countrywide Financial unit is asking a judge to throw out claims for "billions of dollars" in damages by the Federal Housing Finance Agency for mortgage-backed securities bought by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The agency's federal and state securities law claims are time-barred, lawyers for Countrywide said in a Sept. 7 filing in support of their request to have the claims dismissed. The Federal Housing Finance Agency sued Countrywide last year as conservator of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the government-sponsored enterprises created to support the housing market by buying residential mortgages in the secondary market. It alleges negligent misrepresentations and fraud related to the offerings of Countrywide mortgage-backed securities.
