The landmark $25 billion settlement reached by the federal government, 49 states and the nation’s five biggest banks will provide long-overdue relief for hundreds of thousands of homeowners who have been struggling to navigate the mortgage mess created by lenders.

The wider impact for most homeowners, along with the housing market and economy, will be much more limited.

“You’re hardly skimming the surface,” said Paul Dales, a housing economist with Capital Economics. “It could help some people a lot, individually. But in terms of the big-picture, overall economy and housing market, it’s really just a drop in the ocean of the problem.”

NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on Friday sued three major U.S. banks, accusing them of fraud for using an electronic mortgage database that resulted in deceptive and illegal practices.

Schneiderman filed the lawsuit against Bank of America Corp , Wells Fargo & Co and JPMorgan Chase & Co in New York state court in Brooklyn.

The lawsuit is over the banks’ use of MERS, the Mortgage Electronic Registration System the industry created in the mid-1990s to track the ownership and servicing of residential mortgage loans.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Thousands of dissatisfied customers broke up with their megabanks this fall, and many more say they would leave if they can find a decent alternative. Enter Simple.com, a new online service that wants to replace your bank.

Formerly known as BankSimple, the two-years-in-the-making venture opened last month to its first small batch of early customers. The site has a straightforward but wildly ambitious goal: Get rid of everything customers hate about banking.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — This holiday season is your last chance to stop by the bank and buy a paper savings bond, either for yourself or your loved ones.

Starting Jan. 1, you’ll no longer be able to purchase paper savings bonds at banks or other financial institutions. Instead, the savings bonds, which have been around since 1935, will be replaced by electronic bonds that can only be purchased online.

The Treasury Department’s Bureau of Public Debt announced the “all-electronic initiative” last year, and the agency has already ended the sale of paper bonds through traditional payroll plans.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — American International Group is back in the red. Way in the red.

The bailed out insurer posted a net loss of $4.1 billion on Thursday, a loss per share of $2.16 for the third quarter. While analysts hadn’t expected the company to post a profit, the size of the loss exceeded expectations.

The outsized loss sent AIG (AIG, Fortune 500) shares lower after the closing bell, with prices dropping more than 1% to $24.35.

And that’s bad news for taxpayers, since the U.S. Treasury still owns a substantial chunk of AIG.

Back in 2008, the government agreed to help the giant insurer get back on its feet with a $180 billion lifeline. AIG has been slowly working toward paying back that loan.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Many big banks are lining up to assure customers they won’t impose the debit card fees that have sparked a backlash against Bank of America.

According to a person familiar with the company’s plans, JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500), the country’s biggest bank, has decided not to charge customers for debit card purchases. The decision follows a test of the fee the bank began in two states in February. That test will be dropped in November.

The Wall Street Journal first reported Chase’s decision on Friday.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — At long last, European leaders took a significant step forward on the long road toward resolving the eurozone’s debt crisis.

But many details remain unclear and economists are already raising questions about the effectiveness of the latest plan.

“We certainly have moved a step in the right direction,” said Guntram Wolff, deputy director of Brussels-based think tank Bruegel. “But this is definitely not the end of the story.”

The plan includes a 50% reduction in the face value of Greek government bonds, steps to boost bank capital buffers and schemes to leverage an already stretched rescue fund.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Europe’s top leaders said Sunday that they were getting closer to finalizing a plan to solve Europe’s debt crisis.

But with a final agreement not expected before Wednesday, the actual details remained under wraps.

“The technical complexities are significant,” said French President Nicolas Sarkozy, adding that there are large amounts of money involved.

The European Council, comprising government heads from all 27 members of the European Union, met Sunday in Brussels to hammer out a plan to boost capital levels for banks, enhance a government-backed rescue fund and provide debt relief for Greece.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — A 4% mortgage sounds too good to be true — and for more than 90% of borrowers, it is.

The average rate for a 30-year mortgage dropped below 4% earlier this month for the first time, hitting 3.94%, Freddie Mac reported.

But at the same time, LendingTree (TREE) reported that the average rate offered to borrowers by its network of lenders was about 4.32%.

Only about 9% of LendingTree borrowers got loans below 4%. About a third got loans between 4.5% and 5%.

Those rates are still low, but a half point rate difference adds about $700 a year to the payments on a $200,000 mortgage.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Brace yourselves, peanut butter lovers — prices are set to spike following one of the worst peanut harvest seasons growers have seen in years.

Prices for a ton of runner peanuts, commonly used to make peanut butter, hit nearly $1,200 this week, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That’s up from just $450 per ton a year ago.

It won’t be long before consumers see this price increase reflected on store shelves.

Kraft (KFT, Fortune 500) will raise prices for its Planters brand peanut butter by 40% starting Oct. 31, while ConAgra (CAG, Fortune 500) expects increases of more than 20% for its Peter Pan brand.

A spokesperson for Unilever (UL), which makes Skippy, would say only that it’s watching the situation “very closely.”

First, Congress and President Obama can adopt strategies designed to unleash the massive amount of capital that is accumulated but not being invested. There’s some $2.2 trillion in cash in American banks that is not committed to loans. A couple hundred billion has to be held back for bad mortgages, but there’s about $2 trillion that could be used in cash reserves for up to $20 trillion in loans. So, in theory, that would take the world out of recession. And U.S. corporations have about $2 trillion more that they have decided not to invest.

(Reuters) – U.S. bank profits have been rising steadily for more than a year, but the recovery may be losing momentum due to weak loan demand and low lending rates.

For many of the biggest banks, earnings are likely to fall in the third quarter, dragged down by investment banking businesses like trading and underwriting. And the tough environment for traditional businesses like lending is only making things worse, analysts said.