Hoping to gain status in securities underwriting and get in on the tech boom, BofA bought Montgomery Securities in 1997, only to have its leader, Thomas Weisel, noisily decamp to form his own shop.

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That is a worry, because investors' appetite for these securities fuelled the boom in riskier mortgages.

ECONOMIST: America's housing market

It was an eager seller of mortgage securities during the boom, even as its traders were betting on a market slump, fuelling the same allegations of duplicity that Goldman Sachs has faced.

ECONOMIST: America charges Germany��s biggest bank with fraud

Her natural targets other big banks with units that underwrote large amounts of subprime, Alt-A, or option ARM mortgage-backed securities during the housing boom include JPMorgan Chase , Royal Bank of Scotland , Wells Fargo , Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley , Citigroup , Goldman Sachs and Ally Financial.

FORBES: Wall Street's New Nightmare

In a separate development, Bank of America earlier announced it had reached a settlement with mortgage insurer MBIA in a dispute over mortgage securities issued during the housing boom.

BBC: Bank of America and Wells Fargo to be sued by New York

He took long lunches and spent afternoons walking a local creek with his son while the rest of the banking sector was funding the housing boom, buying and selling mortgage-backed securities.

FORBES: Billionaire Banker Targeting Big Banks Over Mortgages

That secondary market was rocked as the housing boom ended, more borrowers defaulted and thousands of AAA-rated securities based on those debt obligations tumbled.

WSJ: NY attorney general looks at ratings agencies

CDOs have helped fuel the boom in housing and are backed by junk bonds, leveraged loans, asset-backed securities (like mortgages), credit default swaps--and who knows what else.

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