The Financial Times is reporting U.S. taxpayers will subsidize part of the $26 billion settlement owed by five leading banks to resolve claims over faulty foreclosures and mortgage practices. A clause in the provisional agreement, which has not been made public, allows the banks to count future loan modifications made under a previous foreclosure-prevention initiative toward their restructuring obligations for the new settlement. Neil Barofsky, the former special inspector-general of the TARP, said this means the mortgage settlement is essentially another bailout for the banks.