After months of lowball offers and heels dug in, it took only 24 hours for Bank of America to suddenly cave in to the government, agreeing to the largest single federal settlement in the history of corporate America.
The tentative deal - which people briefed on the matter said would cost the bank more than $16 billion to settle investigations into its sale of toxic mortgage securities in the runup to the financial crisis - started to take shape last week after the Justice Department rejected yet another settlement offer from the bank. Then, a wild card entered the fray.