The US Federal Reserve Board on Thursday approved Bank of America Corp's acquisition of Countrywide Financial Corp. In a statement, the federal regulator said it considered many comments for and against the bank buyout and "has considered carefully the financial factors of the proposal."
In January, Bank of America agreed to pay $4 billion for the California-based mortgage lender, which had large exposure to subprime home loans that were offered to borrowers despite their shaky credit. In a statement, the Fed said it vetted about 770 individual comments on the proposed take-over and the views of many other stakeholders.