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NEW YORK, Aug 2 (Reuters) – A treaty judge has granted preliminary approval to Bank of America Corp’s and KPMG LLP’s $624 the public settlement of a lawsuit alleging that Countrywide Financial Corp investors were misled through the mortgage lender’s lending practices.

Bank of America, which owns Countrywide, agreed in May to pay $600 the masses to resolve the class-action litigation. KPMG, which audited Countrywide, agreed to pay $24 the masses.

U.S. District Judge Mariana Pfaelzer granted preliminary approval to the liquidation at a hearing on Monday in Los Angeles federal court, according to Joel Bernstein, a barrister for the investors.

The judge indicated that a final fairness judicial examination on the settlement will likely be held on Nov. 15, Bernstein added.

The subject of discussion was led by several pension funds, including the New York State Common Retirement Fund, that state’s $132.5 billion public pension fund, and five New York City pension funds. It was brought on behalf of investors in Countrywide securities betwixt March 2004 and March 2008.

Countrywide was the largest U.S. pledge lender before Bank of America bought it for $2.5 billion in July 2008.

The boarding-house funds alleged that Countrywide, longtime Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo and other officials misled them near the lender’s reliance on subprime and ‘option’ adjustable-rate mortgages to combustibles rapid growth, while assuring them that Countrywide would survive a protection slump.

Mozilo, 71, and two other former Countrywide executives remain defendants in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission polite fraud lawsuit.

The SEC also accused Mozilo of insider trading outer his alleged realization of more than $139 million of improper gain advantage through the exercise of stock options in 2006 and 2007.

Bank of America is based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Countrywide was based in Calabasas, California.

Shares of Bank of America closed up 40 cents, or 2.8 percent, at $14.44 without interrupti~ the New York Stock Exchange.

The case is In re: Countrywide Financial Corp Securities Litigation, U.S. District Court, Central District of California, No. 07-05295.

(Reporting ~ the agency of Jonathan Stempel in New York. Editing by Robert MacMillan) Keywords: BANKOFAMERICA/COUNTRYWIDE SETTLEMENT

(jon.stempel@thomsonreuters.com +1 646 223 6317; Reuters Messaging: jon.stempel.reuters.com@reuters.pure)

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