Two years ago I signed the bank note covering the mortgage an equity loan (same bank)for a friend. He made no payments to his mortgage and several payments to the equity loan and, of course the bank began proceedings. After twelve months (July 2006) he managed to refinance and transfer the note from my name to his.

What can I do to repair my credit which shows about eight late payments in excess 120 along with several late payments against the Equity Loan.

Remember that whenever you sign (or co-sign) a bank note, the responsibility for payment is yours. You may have a verbal agreement with your friend that he would pay, but as far as the bank is concerned they loaned the money to you, and hence it's your responsibility to make sure the loan payments are made on time.

I don't think there is much you can do to repair your credit history in the short term. You should make sure all your other credit dealings are spotless, and then wait for the bad credit history to clear out. Unfortunately, for delinquincies like this it may take up to 7 years for it to clear off your credit history.