The Bank of Opportunity is planning to pink-slip up to 40,000 people to shore up its bottom line.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...
It’s time to simplify the organization, streamline the organization and make sure our business processes are relevant when you have a smaller, more focused company,” Moynihan told Bloomberg News in a Sept. 6 interview. “We just don’t need to be the biggest.”
Moynihan is trying to boost the bank’s profits amid concerns about exposure to the slowing U.S. economy and a slew of mortgage-related losses and lawsuits, the Journal reported. The bank, still struggling under the weight of toxic mortgage loans, says the moves are part of "delayering and simplifying" operations.
You have to wonder how it feels for 40,000 people to be "de-layered" or "simplified." At any rate this is a red herring. The fact is the company can't keep these people because its executives perpetrated some of the worst financial malfeasance in history, actively tanking the world economy in the process.
40,000 people. Just try to get your mind around that number.
As far as the "slew of mortgage-related losses and lawsuits" are concerned, here's one the company would probably like to sweep under the rug:
A Hawaii woman is suing Bank of America for allegedly calling her up to 48 times a day for her mortgage payment after her husband died of cancer.
The 63-year-old woman, Deborah Crabtree of Honolulu, claims the bank's "robo-calling" debt collectors rang her phone every 15 minutes, from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m.
It all started Aug. 3 of last year, the day after Crabtree's husband died. Bank of America called Crabtree to request the monthly loan payment on one of her two mortgages. The couple's mortgage payments, totaling nearly $3,000, were due on the first of the month.
According to the lawsuit, Crabtree told the bank that she had only $5,000 for her expenses, which included burying her husband and preparing for his wake. She said she had asked for 30 days to get everything in order and promised to pay as soon as she received her husband's life insurance benefit.
The bank allegedly said that Crabtree had enough for the first mortgage payment and continued to call her every day for the next week.
Nice guys. They even called her during her husband's wake. Every 15 minutes.
This company received 45 Billion dollars as part of the TARP bailout. The money was paid back, sort of. The Bailout of BofA was in part due to the company's brilliant 2008 acquisition of Countrywide Financial. As their CEO put it rather laconically in 2008:
“Obviously, there aren’t many days when I get up and think positively about the Countrywide transaction in 2008,” said Moynihan, who took the reins of the bank 18 months ago.
Barbara Desoer, President of Bank of America Home Loans, bemoans how the troubled Countrywide loans forced poor BofA to hire more specialists in ministering to delinquent homeowners (I guess this is before the robo-caller scheme was fully implemented). But the real world experience was a revelation to her:
Desoer said listening to calls between her staff and distressed borrowers has ranged from callers being very clinical in discussing their options to others requiring a lot of hand-holding and budgeting help, with her staff suggesting cutting the cable TV or renting out a room.
“I’m impressed with the resiliency of the American consumer,” Desoer said."
It's good to know Desoer's heart is in the right place:
Desoer praised California’s foreclosure process that doesn’t require court approval. That allows a foreclosure to occur faster in California than in states such as Florida, where it can take more than a year for a bank to take back a house from a troubled borrower.
“The faster you can get them to the other side and into a house they can afford and the faster someone else can take over the house -- an investor or homeowner -- the better it is for the community,” Desoer said.
See? It's all about the "community." Seriously, what a piece of....
work. And let's just dispense with the notion that this was "
all about Countrywide."
The government is suing Bank of America for Countrywide, and it is suing Bank of America, separately, for things it did without Countrywide.
* * *
And that’s where it hints that Bank of America was even worse than Countrywide:
“Even the top executives of Countrywide Financial Corp., the notorious mortgage lender ...complained to each other...that BOA’s appetite for risky products was greater than that of Countrywide,” the lawsuit reads.
“In a June 13, 2005, email, Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo wrote to President and COO David Sambol: “This is the third deal in the last 10 days that BOA has offered that is impossible to beat. In fact, the other two were substantially worse than this one. It appears to me that BOA is making an aggressive move into mortgages once again.’”
Imagine that. Bank of America doing mortgage deals that even Mozilo found shocking.
This would be like Frankenstein convincing Godzilla that he is the bigger monster.
The company has already laid off 6000 people so far this year. But they really, really are the Masters of the Universe.
Bank of America serves clients in more than 150 countries and has a relationship with 99% of the U.S. Fortune 500 companies and 83% of the Fortune Global 500. The company is a member of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and a component of both the S&P 500 Index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average.[8][9][10]
As of 2010, Bank of America is the 5th largest company in the United States by total revenue,[11] as well as the second largest non-oil company in the U.S. (after Walmart). In 2010, Forbes listed Bank of America as the 3rd "best" large company in the world.[12]
The bank's 2008 acquisition of Merrill Lynch made Bank of America the world's largest wealth manager and a major player in the investment banking industry.[13]
The "world's largest wealth manager."
Forty-six thousand stranded and counting.