Costs of bad mortgages, foreclosures piling up

Welcome to the morning roundup. Here's a look at what's news in banking and finance.

Mounting mortgage costs. As Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac increasingly pressure big banks to buy back bad loans, the total cost of mortgages in default and foreclosures has reached $84 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. In just the first half of this year, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and three other big mortgage originators set aside $3 billion, and regional banks have set aside more than ever before. The number is likely to rise.

Australia beating Europe. For the first time, Australian banks have a larger market capitalization than their counterparts in Europe, according to new research from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, the Wall Street Journal says. Euro-zone banks have plummeted in value amid the debt crisis.

BofA and Jefferson County. Bank of America has withdrawn its challenge to the bankruptcy filing of Jefferson County, Ala., after the Charlotte bank said it has sold all the sewer bonds from the county it holds, Reuters reports. The Alabama county was pushed into default under the weight of interest rate swaps on the billions in sewer bonds, contracts originated by JPMorgan Chase.

Standard Chartered fine. Britain's Standard Chartered bank will pay the brand-new regulatory agency New York Department of Financial Services $340 million to resolve charges that the bank laundered money for Iran, The New York Times reports. The state regulator took on the bank alone, but some worry it could weaken a larger investigation being conducted by federal regulators.