Deceiving the world; the U.S. economy appeared to be recovered from the worst mortgage crisis. As now, billions of dollars in bad loans from the debacle seem to be rising from the dead and creeping back on the balance sheets of the largest U.S. banks.

Big lenders including Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo may be forced to repurchase troubled home loans from insurers and mortgage-finance giants like Freddie Mac that had agreed to take on risks associated with those assets during the real estate boom.

The banks are setting aside more reserves to cover the potential costs of such repurchases, cutting into earnings. Meanwhile, government-controlled mortgage-finance giants; Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are also getting in on the act, potentially forcing banks to repurchase billions of dollars more in bad loans.

The trend is also pitting big lenders, insurers and mortgage-finance institutions against each other That’s a big change from the previous decade, when they worked together to fuel the housing boom by originating, insuring and securitizing mortgages in record amounts.

Mortgage insurers have rescinded, or refused to pay, roughly $6 billion in claims from delinquent home loans since January 2008, rating agency Moody’s Investors Service estimated in a December report. That could leave banks that originated the loans on the hook for losses.

In the first nine months of 2009, firms that collect payments on mortgages guaranteed by Freddie Mac repurchased home loans with a total unpaid balance of $2.7 billion. That was up from $1.2 billion in the same period of 2008, Moody’s noted.

Bank of America, Joe Price, and the company’s head of consumer banking, told analysts last month that the company has billions of dollars in reserves lined up to cover loan repurchases and related disputes with Fannie, Freddie and insurers.