The NCUA said Tuesday that it has chalked up a $165 million winagainst Wall Street, reaching a settlement with Bank of America andsome of its subsidiaries over residential mortgage backedsecurities losses at failed corporate credit unions.

Bank of America did not admit fault as part of the settlement,the NCUA said in its announcement.

“As a result of the Bank of America settlement, NCUA has nowsuccessfully recovered more than a third of a billion dollars onbehalf of credit unions,” said NCUA Board Chairman Debbie Matz.“These settlements and our ongoing lawsuits further NCUA's goal ofminimizing the losses of the corporate crisis and cutting futurecosts to credit unions.”

In all, NCUA has recovered more than $335 million in legalsettlements, which includes three similar, previously reached agreements with Citigroup, Deutsche BankSecurities and HSBC worth $170.75 million.

Those figures do not include fees due attorneys under acontingency agreement with NCUA to handle the suits.

According to Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the HouseCommittee on Oversight and Government Reform, the NCUA's contractedlaw firms are collecting 25% of settlement recoveries.

In February, the NCUA's Inspector General told Issa in aFebruary 2013 report that the NCUA's contingency agreements werereasonable.

Using the 25% legal fee estimate, of the $335 million recovered,$83.75 million would be paid to attorneys, with the balance of$251.25 million being applied toward corporate stabilizationcosts.

That's almost one-third of the 2012 corporate assessmentcollected from federally insured credit unions, and could providesome assessment relief to credit unions.

NCUA Public Affairs Specialist John Fairbanks said thesettlement funds have already been collected by the federalinsurer. Currently, the 2013 assessment is estimated to be between8 and 11 basis points. In 2012, an assessment of 9.5 basis pointsraked in $800 million.

NCUA has filed lawsuits against several other firms, includingBarclays Capital, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, J.P. MorganSecurities, RBS Securities, UBS Securities, Wachovia, WashingtonMutual and Bear, Stearns, alleging violations of federal and statesecurities laws in the sale of mortgage-backed securities to thefive corporate credit unions.