Bank of America: Computer FAIL

The Bank of America got billions in bailout dollars, but they can't even construct a simple letter properly.


Take a look at this document. 


It instructs the consumer to write to the Orwellian sounding "Consumer Correspondence Unit CA6-919-01-41" but also to designate the recipient as "name." Yes, "name." Either Bank of America employees don't have names or there's something rather wrong here. Try something rather wrong first!


Small wonder the Bank of America is imploding.

600,000 Consumers Leave The Bailed Out Banks!

January 28, 2012: More than 600,000 U.S. consumers have moved their money from big banks to community banks or credit unions, thanks to the much-publicized Bank Transfer Day last fall, according to an analysis released by Javelin Strategy & Research.

The grassroots campaign to get people to shift out of big banks capitalized on the nationwide Occupy Wall Street movement, and picked up further momentum from a Bank of America plan in September to charge customers a $5 per month debit card fee. After the bank dropped this plan ahead of Bank Transfer Day on November 5, an exit from big banks continued, sparked by Bank Transfer Day's Facebook campaign. (More than 60,000 have "liked" the page.)

"It was a meaningful movement of people from big banks into small community banks and credit unions, but it wasn't a huge number by any stretch," said Jim Van Dyke, founder of Javelin, a research and consulting company which on Thursday released a data-based analysis of the impact of the movement.

Nevertheless, he said, "It was quite a feat. I don't think we'll see it repeated any time soon."

Historically, people don't switch banks easily, even if they are unhappy, Van Dyke says. Consumers have strong ties to their banks because of direct deposit, automated bill payments and habit -- making change more complex than simply going someplace else.

"Individuals are really resistant to moving their money out of banks," Van Dyke says, noting that Javelin has tracked customer behavior at banks through a large sample survey since 2003. "The difference between what they say and what they do is really different."

American Bankers Association spokeswoman Carol Kaplan says the numbers of those fleeing big banks should be kept in perspective.

"While these 600,000 adults represent an exceedingly tiny fragment of the hundreds of millions of Americans with bank accounts, the industry takes consumer sentiment seriously... Consumers have a wealth of choice and banks have always been in favor of competition, regardless of where it comes from," she says.

An additional 200,000 people claimed they had moved their accounts due to the campaign against big banks, but did not take their money out of one of the top 10 institutions, Van Dyke says.

Bank of America did not bear the brunt of the account closings, Van Dyke says -- its losses attributed to the Bank Transfer campaign were statistically similar to losses at the other large banks.

"We didn't see any individual bank punished out of this more than the rest," he says.

Bank of America spokeswoman Betty Riess wouldn't comment on Javelin's findings or the impact of Bank Transfer Day. However, CEO Brian T. Moynihan had said in a recent conference call with analysts that the bank did take a hit.

Moynihan said on the call that the bank had a 20 percent increase in account closings in the fourth quarter of 2011 compared to the same quarter in 2010. "So I'd say that yes, we had some impact from the $5 debit fee. That's why we made a decision to reverse it," he said, according to transcripts of the conference call published on the internet.

That statement shows that the bank understands that consumers' voices count, says Ed Mierzwinski, consumer program director for U.S. PIRG, which advocates for consumers on a variety of issues including banking.

"Bank of America got the message and did take a hit," he says, noting Moynihan's comments. "Bank of America and other big banks now know that unfair practices will and do result in consumers voting with their feet."

Overall, about 5.6 million people moved their bank accounts in the last quarter of 2011, Javelin says. Account changes attributed to Bank Transfer Day represented about 11 percent of total moves. About a quarter of the overall group that moved accounts cited fees that banks charge. Fees, including Bank of America's proposed monthly debit card fee, were at the core of the push to move consumers' cash to nonprofit credit unions, which tend to have lower and fewer charges for routine banking.

The trade group Credit Union National Association estimates that between the time Bank of America announced the plan to charge a debit-use fee and the week following Bank Transfer Day, some 700,000 people moved their accounts to credit unions.

Technology plays a big role when consumers switch banks, Van Dyke says. Younger adults place greater value on having robust online banking tools -- something not as commonly available at smaller banks and credit unions.

"It turned out that technology and individuals' inertia really won the day in favor of the large banks," Van Dyke says. "If this continues, these small institutions will go the way of the Oldsmobile."

Bank of America's Brian Moynihan Calls "RETREAT!"

The Bank of America has advised regulators that it is willing to retreat from some parts of the country if its financial problems deepen.

Among the 7,400 U.S. banks and savings institutions, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. are the only coast-to-coast giants. For the past 20 years, Bank of America and predecessor NationsBank Corp. relentlessly acquired other financial institutions in a form of manifest destiny that shook the U.S. banking industry. The 1998 takeover of BankAmerica Corp., of San Francisco, and 2004 purchase of FleetBoston Financial Corp., Boston, left the combined bank with sizable muscle in nearly every large metropolitan area in the country.

Over the course of its long expansion, Bank of America pushed its way into every nook and cranny of the financial system. But in doing so the bank left itself more exposed than any major bank to the severe economic downturn of 2008-2009, the weak recovery since and a litany of mortgage-related lawsuits.

Bank of America stumbled at a time when the entire U.S. banking industry was going through its worst crisis since the 1930s, prompting a federal bailout of many of the nation's largest financial institutions. Still, some of Bank of America's worst wounds, particularly its 2008 purchase of Countrywide Financial Corp., were self-inflicted.

Its share price has tumbled 55% in the past year, the worst performance of any major U.S. bank. In the third quarter, JPMorgan leapfrogged Bank of America to become the biggest U.S. bank by assets.

Bank of America Chief Executive Brian Moynihan put a possible geographic retrenchment on the list submitted in the middle of last year to regulators. Also on the list is a potential sale of a separate class of shares tied to the performance of Merrill Lynch & Co., the securities firm owned by Bank of America, according to people familiar with the matter. Merrill was sinking when Bank of America swooped in to buy the firm in 2008, but has since turned itself around.

The drastic moves would be seriously considered only if Bank of America needs to raise more capital to cushion itself from mortgage woes and other turmoil. The exercise wasn't intended to force immediate action but rather to prepare Bank of America if its situation worsened, according to a person familiar with the Fed's approach. But Mr. Moynihan, other top executives and directors of the sprawling bank are grappling with scenarios that were unthinkable even during the worst moments of the financial crisis.

The 52-year-old Mr. Moynihan was promoted to CEO in 2010 to fix a bad situation inherited from predecessor Kenneth D. Lewis, who pushed hard for the Countrywide acquisition. "I see these times as a vindication of our model," Mr. Lewis said in 2007 after announcing the agreement to buy Countrywide. The deal has haunted Bank of America ever since, saddling the company with huge losses and legal woes.

Mitt Romney Says: "Occupy the Bank of America" (and then sue them)

DECEMBER 23, 2011: LANCASTER, N.H. — Mitt Romney, who has argued that home foreclosures should be allowed to “hit the bottom,” encouraged a homeowner in New Hampshire to sue Bank of America to stop harassment over a mortgage.

During a conversation at a diner on Friday, the man, Eric Pyra, told Mr. Romney that Bank of America was sending him letters threatening foreclosure, even though he said he had regularly made monthly mortgage payments.

Mr. Romney told the man that, if he was correct about his payments and had the documentation to prove it, he should take the company to court or sit in the lobby of the bank’s headquarters and demand to review the paperwork with Bank of America employees.

“Occupy Bank of America?” the man said, playfully.

“Yeah, exactly,” Mr. Romney said.

After Mr. Romney had moved on to speak with other voters, Mr. Pyra, 40, told a reporter that he had not made a large payment on his mortgage, called a “balloon,” that totaled about $92,000.

A part of his exchange with Mr. Romney, starting after Mr. Pyra explains his circumstances, appears below:

ROMNEY: That might be something to go down to their office — big office in Boston — go sit in their front lobby and say ‘I’m gonna sit here until you sit down with me and look at these documents.”

PYRA: Occupy Bank of America?

ROMNEY: “Yeah, exactly. Yeah. If you are in the right, and you’ve got the documents to prove it, I’d go after them. The other thing you can do is file a suit against them.

PYRA: I can’t afford a lawyer, so –

ROMNEY: Ah, just file it in small claims court. Just say that they’ve been harassing you. If you’ve been making your payments, and you’ve got your documents, then you can show that, I’d go to small claims court and say these guys have been harassing me.

Mr. Romney then summoned John Sununu, the former governor of New Hampshire, who was at the diner campaigning with the Republican presidential candidate.

“So this guy has been paying his mortgage every month, O.K.?” he told Mr. Sununu. “And he’s got all his paperwork in. But Bank of America keeps telling him they are going to foreclose, even though he’s paid and can prove he has paid and so forth. Do you have some kind of harassment statute in this state that he can file small claim action against them? That would get their attention.”

A spokesman for Bank of America could not be immediately reached.

Occupy Clarksville: Bank of America DOES NOT PAY TAXES!

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – November the 17th has been named International Day of Action by the Occupy Wall Street movement and for the local Occupy Clarksville group that meant a march to the downtown Bank of America located on Regions Street.

It is the 25th day the group has maintained an uninterrupted occupation of Public Square and even as the weather gets colder there appears no letup in their determination. Thursday’s march was Occupy Clarksville’s actin to take a stand against corporate greed and corruption.

According to some of the signs, Bank of America the group claims paid nothing in income taxes in 2010. In fact, according to a Forbes Magazine article analyzing the tax returns of some top 25 companies in America although the company declared $4.4 billion in income for the year.

According to the Forbes story the reason is because, “Of deductions like $860 million in tax-exempt income, $670 million in low-income housing credits and a $600 million loss on shares of foreign subsidiaries.” The article even projected the company probably will not pay taxes on the billions in income for some time.

Another one of the group’s signs proclaims the financial institution makes the most foreclosures on homes than any other U.S. bank. According to the U.S. Treasury Department B of A only modifies seven percent of the home loans in foreclosure. That is compared to 25 percent of modifications made by JP Morgan Chase another financial giant. Compare Bank of America’s seven percent to the next lowest percentage of 11 by the financial institution Wells Fargo and there is still four percent disparage. 

Often the complaint is that Bank of America makes the process to modify a home loan difficult and full of so much red tape that by the time a home owner in trouble can actually work through it, their home is outside the prerequisites. The most common complaint is the financial giant keeps losing documentation.

The Occupy Clarksville group invites the public out to Public Square at any time to ask questions or participate. During the International Day of Action the group put out a call to “Take our fight for economic justice out of the park and into the streets. Banks got bailed out. We got sold out.” 

Bank of America: Layoffs Begin In Charlotte, NC

November 15, 2001: The first phase of a massive layoff by handing out pink slips to an undisclosed number of Bank of America employees in Charlotte started today.

People familiar with the situation tell the Charlotte Business Journal that layoff notices were circulated at technology and operations division offices Tuesday afternoon. Others mentioned the layoffs on Twitter. It’s unclear how many employees have lost their jobs.

BofA has not responded to requests for comment on the layoffs.

The bank previously said it would cut 30,000 jobs companywide by the end of next year as it trims expenses and tries to improve its performance. It’s part of Project New BAC, Chief Executive Brian Moynihan’s efficiency initiative. The current phase of the project focused on the bank’s consumer-banking and support divisions. A second phase next year will focus on the investment-banking and capital-markets divisions.

BofA hopes to slash $5 billion in annual expenses by 2013.

Sources say this is the first of three rounds of planned cuts. And Charlotte is expected to be hit hard during the first phase of New BAC because it is home to many consumer-banking and technology and operations jobs.

“I’ve been getting pinged on LinkedIn like never before,” says a former BofA employee who now has his own business. “People want to know if I’m hiring.”

BofA shares have been down about 50% this year as investors have grown weary of its challenges amid a slow economy and ill-timed acquisitions.

BofA has about 15,000 employees in Charlotte, according to the most recent estimates.

Bank of America: Moynihan the Merciless!

Just listening to Sandra Simmons recall her two-year struggle with mortgage loan modification is exhausting.

To live through it, she says, is even more so.

The 50-year-old housekeeper and single mother of four is at risk of losing her three-bedroom Concord Drive home in Jackson to foreclosure after a string of miscommunication gaffes.

In 2009, falling behind on her house payments, Simmons applied with Bank of America to renegotiate her existing mortgage loan. She said her modification had been approved and stonewalled because she failed to provide information she was never asked for.

Then, once Simmons began making modified payments, she says she was bounced from one representative to another, each telling her she owed a different amount.

Then the cycle repeated.

"It's been a back-and-forth situation for two years. I don't think anyone should be put through that," Simmons said as she stood outside her home.

"Has this modification helped anybody? I haven't heard any success stories. Am I alone in this?"

Bank of America spokeswoman Jumana Bauwens said in a email statement that the bank is committed to improvng its processes to assist distressed homeowners.

"Bank of America has completed more than 900,000 modifications since the housing crisis began," Bauwens said. "We will continue to work with Ms. Simmons until we have explored all options to avoid foreclosure."

Simmons has sought help from a local loan counselor and filed a complaint with the state attorney general's office.

Bank of America was to foreclose on Simmons' home last month, she said, but it has been postponed. Simmons is still uncertain of her standing with the bank.

"Be consistent with your story, then I'll understand," she said.

Stories like Simmons' are common among distressed homeowners facing foreclosure, said Scott Spivey, spokesman for the Mississippi Home Corp. Spivey said homeowners seeking help from MHC counselors often vent about modification programs.

Jan Schaeffer, a spokeswoman for the attorney general's office, said the office also has fielded some calls.

"The different (lender) divisions aren't talking to one another, and the homeowner is bouncing around between people," Spivey said.

"The homeowner is already desperate. Then there's the added frustration of, 'Nobody's helping me here.'"

Among large mortgage servicers, Bank of America left most struggling homeowners in limbo without either modifying or foreclosing, according to a study released earlier this year by ProPublica. In addition, the study showed the average modification occurred seven to 11 months after the borrower fell behind.

To be eligible for a loan modification, homeowners must prove financial hardship. In addition, they must prove they are able and willing to continue payments if modification is granted.

Spivey said such programs might not be the right fit for all, given each homeowner's circumstance.

"Some modifications don't go far enough," Spivey said. "Even a successful modification may not help depending on the circumstance. Every case is different."

Spivey said alternative options include the Mississippi Home Saver Program and the Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP.

Home Saver, a federally funded program that debuted last year, makes a year's worth of mortgage payments for those who have lost their jobs and are seeking work.

It will end in December 2017, or when funds are depleted.

HAMP, another federal program, expands eligibility to borrowers who are delinquent as well as borrowers whose default is imminent. The program is effective for mortgages originated on or before Jan. 1, 2009, and will expire Dec. 31, 2012.

According to the ProPublica study, just over one in five homeowners who applied for HAMP have received a permanent modification.

Also, about 1.3 million homeowners were denied approval without being placed in HAMP's three-month trial period, which determines whether homeowners can afford their new payments.

Spivey said additional information about both programs is available through MHC's Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling Program. The service is free, and a list of counseling agencies is available on MHC's website.

Since July 2009, 284 Mississippi homeowners have sought counseling through MHC. Of that number, 70 have received some sort of modification.

Spivey said homeowners should beware of foreclosure counseling scams in which they are asked for pay for services.

He said MHC has not come across any victimized homeowners.

The attorney general's office discourages homeowners from using private companies that often charge thousands of dollars for services.

Schaeffer suggests contacting a lender directly and applying for a loan modification, if needed.