Countrywide bondholders may have not been holding out for much, but Bank of America may have nothing to offer. Bank of America said in a filing “there is no assurance that any of such (CFC’s) debt would be redeemed, assumed or guaranteed.” It said Countrywide had outstanding debt of about $97.23 billion as of Dec 31, including Federal Home Loan Bank advances of about $47.68 billion, which it expects will remain outstanding until repaid by Countrywide Bank. Bloomberg’s report suggests Countrywide would be split into good and bad companies, with the debt going into the junky one. Not that Countrywide bondholders should have much to say about it; Bank of America has no obligation to them, but just imagine the lawsuits.

Private equity firm Texas Pacific Group is considering a bid for Royal Bank of Scotland’s 8 billion pound ($15.9 billion) insurance arm, according to a source familiar with the matter. “TPG is doing its homework on the business now,” the source said. “It is very premature and no decision has yet been made to bid for it, but TPG is interested.” Britain’s second-biggest bank said last week it would also sell assets to generate 4 billion pounds in core capital this year, mostly from the possible disposal of all or a stake in its insurance arm, which includes brands Direct Line and Churchill.

Dutch financial services group ING said it would buy CitiStreet, a retirement plan administrator, grabbing third place in the defined contribution business in the United States. ING said in a statement it would pay 578 million euros ($903 million) for the company, which is jointly owned by Citigroup and State Street. Lehman Brothers analyst Nick Holmes said at first glance the acquisition may make sense strategically, but it did not look cheap.

Other deals of the day:

* Norwegian Property said it had agreed to sell its Norgani Hotels chain for 11.2 billion Norwegian crowns ($2.21 billion) to an undisclosed group of buyers, lifting its shares by as much as 12.6 percent.

* British aero engineer Hampson Industries said it was to pay up to $314 million to make two U.S. acquisitions, to expand its presence in the carbon composite materials market in the United States.

* Hampson also said it was raising 65 million pounds ($129 million) via a placing and open offer to help fund the deals, which are inter-conditional, to buy Odyssey Industries Inc and Global Tooling Systems Inc.

* Indian utility Reliance Power said its unit had signed an agreement to acquire 100 percent in three coal mines in Indonesia for an undisclosed sum.

* U.S. private equity firms Bain Capital and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. are bidding for Singapore disk drive component maker Unisteel Technology in an auction that has also attracted other major buyout firms, sources close to the matter said.

* Austrian technology group Andritz said it had agreed with General Electric to buy certain assets of GE Energy’s Hydro business.

* Indian engineering and construction firm Jaiprakash Associates said it had won a bid to buy 45 percent of small-sized energy explorer Prize Petroleum for an disclosed sum. The stake in the unlisted company was put on the block by ICICI Bank, India’s No. 2 lender, and its unit ICICI Venture Funds.

* Linde AG, the world’s largest industrial gases producer, said it sold Colombian unit Cryogas to Indura for enterprise value of 90 million euros.

* Nordea Bank bought a 15.2 percent stake in Oslo-listed Scorpion Offshore on April 30, Scorpion said.

* Back-office firm Firstsource Solutions said its board had decided not to merge its subsidiary, RevIT Systems Pvt Ltd with itself.