Madigan's goal was ``to help homeowners now,'' the chief of her consumer protection division, Deborah Hagan, said in a telephone interview yesterday.
The package will likely become the largest predatory lending settlement in history, Brown said in a press statement yesterday.
The cases, initially filed in state courts in Chicago and Los Angeles, accused the lender of using deceptive practices, including the use of low introductory or ``teaser'' rates, to entice borrowers to take loans for which payments eventually grew to amounts homeowners couldn't afford.
