JPMorgan Chase has agreed to pay $614 million to settle a New York lawsuit over its mortgage lending practices.

Federal authorities in Manhattan say the company accepted responsibility for improperly approving thousands of residential home mortgage loans for government insurance and refinancing. They say the company also has agreed to reform practices after routinely breaking rules in federally funded programs since January 2002.

The government says the bank approved thousands of loans for government insurance or refinancing that didn’t meet requirements of federal programs. And it says JPMorgan failed to self-report hundreds of loans it identified as having been affected by fraud or other deficiencies.

JPMorgan says the settlement represents a “significant step in the firm’s efforts to put historical mortgage-related issues behind it.”

(AP)