We all knew Bank of America's Countrywide deal stuck it with a whole lot of bad loans, but it's never been exactly clear how bad. One proxy has been the level of putback exposure the bank has been stuck with. Unfortunately, there have been widely varying estimates of that exposure.

The latest tally comes from Nomura Securities. In a research report built from company financial statements, it finds that Bank of America is "in an unfortunate league of its own" when it comes to putback claims, notes TheStreet.com. Bank of America's $13.6 billion in putback claims compares with less than $9 billion combined at JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Capital One, First Horizon National and SunTrust Banks.

"Also noteworthy is that while the claims against the other banks appear to be stabilizing or dropping, Bank of America saw a rise of nearly $3 billion in the first quarter alone."

Of course, Bank of America has reserved aggressively against claims coming from the big GSEs, and it has settled many claims with them. The real wildcards are the non-GSE claims, including some bond insurers. While the bank has struck a deal with Assured Guarantee, it still faces claims from a host of others big investment houses as well as insurers. More settlement could be on the way.

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