Amid the headlines generated by Thursday's $25 billion nationwide foreclosure settlement, the Justice Department reached a smaller deal with Bank of America over alleged Countrywide mortgage fraud that would normally garner front-page coverage of its own.

Defense lawyers for an individual indicted as part of a bid-rigging investigation in the municipal finance market mistakenly filed a court document identifying more than two dozen bank executives in the government's cross-hairs.

Do banks have the right to charge huge penalty fees for checking account overdrafts? A senior judge in Florida ruled that 15 cases raising such allegations can proceed to discovery in litigation that could cost the banks hundreds of millions of dollars.