Federal officials announced today that five major banks have reached an agreement to pay out $25 billion to homeowners who were improperly foreclosed on. JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Ally Financial will reduce loans for nearly 1 million households. They will also send checks of $2,000 to about 750,000 Americans who were improperly foreclosed upon. The banks will have three years to fulfill the terms of the deal.

The settlement ends a painful chapter that emerged from the financial crisis, when home values sank and millions edged toward foreclosure. Many companies processed foreclosures without verifying documents. Some employees signed papers they hadn’t read or used fake signatures to speed foreclosures – an action known as robo-signing.

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