Free Republic

Your account information will now be accessible to call center workers in the Philippines. Bank of America, which last fall announced plans to lay off 30,000 workers, is about to go on a hiring spree—overseas.America's second-largest bank is relocating its business-support operations to the Philippines, according to a high-ranking Filipino government official recently quoted in the Filipino press. The move, which includes a portion of the bank's customer service unit, comes less than three years after Bank of America received a $45 billion federal bailout.Roman Romulo, deputy majority leader of the Philippine House of Representatives, bragged to the Manila Standard...

BofA Technical Analyst: Gold Is Set For A Rally, Could Go As High As $3000 Max Nisen May 22,2012 The technical analysis team at Bank of America Merrill Lynch thinks a month's long decline in gold is coming to an end. Here's an excerpt from a note by Mary Ann Bartels and Stephen Suttmeier: Gold has pulled back to test support at $1550-1500. This support is holding, which sets up gold for a rally. The downtrend line from the August/ September highs provides initial resistance near $1700. Chart resistances are near $1800 and $1900-1925. Our longer-term view remains that gold...

<p>It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes God smiles on us. Last week, he smiled on investigative reporters everywhere, when the lawyers for Goldman, Sachs slipped on one whopper of a legal banana peel, inadvertently delivering some of the bank’s darker secrets into the hands of the public.</p>

Bank of America has started sending letters to thousands of homeowners in the United States, offering to forgive a portion of the principal balance on their mortgages by an average of $150,000 each. The reduction for qualifying homeowners could amount to monthly savings of up to 35 percent on mortgage payments, Bank of America said in a news release on Monday evening.

[UPDATE: In an email late this evening, Ryan McMillan has confirmed the validity of this story.] When the Bank of America was founded back in 1904, no one ever thought that it would one day truly be the Bank of America. As in (partially) government owned. Just like Government Motors, Chrysler, the entire student loan industry and more, the federal government’s insatiable grasping tentacles are woven throughout one of the world’s largest commercial bank and brokerage operations. And as has always been true, if you take the king’s shilling, you’re damned well going to do his bidding. The folks...

In this case of David vs. Goliath, Goliath wins. An undocumented immigrant from Mexico sues Bank of America after he's nearly deported when his bank manager turns him over to authorities. Lawyers for Luis Martinez ask: Do you want your banker acting as a de facto immigration agent?

Bank of America: Too Crooked to Fail The bank has defrauded everyone from investors and insurers to homeowners and the unemployed. So why does the government keep bailing it out? At least Bank of America got its name right. The ultimate Too Big to Fail bank really is America, a hypergluttonous ward of the state whose limitless fraud and criminal conspiracies we'll all be paying for until the end of time. Did you hear about the plot to rig global interest rates? The $137 million fine for bilking needy schools and cities? The ingenious plan to suck multiple fees out...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Bank of America will significantly slash mortgage balances for as many as 200,000 borrowers. As part of the $26 billion settlement reached between the five major mortgage servicers, the federal government and the attorneys general of 49 states and District of Columbia last month, Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) customers who qualify could see their mortgages reduced by an average of $100,000 or more, according to bank spokesman Rick Simon.

Warren Buffett’s stake in Bank of America Corp. increased in value by $154 million after President Obama and the U.S. Justice Department announced a $25 billion foreclosure abuse settlement with the five largest U.S. banks Thursday, records show. Buffett invested $5 billion in Bank of America (B of A) on Aug. 25, 2011. As part of his investment deal, Buffett gained warrants that allow him to buy 700 million shares of Bank of America stock at a strike price of $7.14 a share. However, on Dec. 19, 2011, it was reported that Buffett was $1.5 billion underwater on his stock...

As reported yesterday, the cost of terminal abrogation of contractual rights in the US is, drumroll, $26 billion. Bloomberg notes: -$26 BILLION FORECLOSURE SETTLEMENT ANNOUNCED IN WASHINGTON -FORECLOSURE ACCORD RESOLVES 16-MONTH ROBO-SIGNING INVESTIGATION -FORECLOSURE ACCORD IS SUBJECT TO APPROVAL BY FEDERAL JUDGE -FORECLOSURE DEAL PRESERVES U.S., STATE RIGHTS TO OTHER CLAIMS -FORECLOSURE ACCORD COULD CLIMB TO $40 BLN IF 14 SERVICERS JOIN And a whole lot of corner offices for America's Attorneys General. As for what the market thinks of this "severe" settlement: BAC +1.2%, WFC +0.6%, JPM +0.4%, C -0.1%. For those who don't understand what just happened, US...

The Charlotte Observer reports that President Obama will formally accept the Democratic nomination at Bank of America stadium in Charlotte, N.C. — an outdoor venue: The move to the Carolina Panthers' 74,000-seat stadium would replicate the 2008 convention, where Obama accepted the nomination at a packed Invesco Field in Denver. The move, which would open the speech to the public, is designed to help mobilize voters in North Carolina, a key swing state. It could also serve as a perk to donors, who could be rewarded with skybox seats. Aside from the optics of Obama accepting the nomination at a...

A fifteen-year-old student pilot apparently trying to recreate the 9/11 kamikaze attack on the World Trade Center slammed a stolen Cessna 172 private airplane Saturday into Tampa, Florida's Bank of America building, the city's tallest structure. Charles J. Bishop, a 15-year-old flight student from Great Britain, stole the small aircraft from Albert Whitted Municipal Airport in nearby St. Petersburg at about 5 p.m., law enforcement sources said. Bishop was killed as the Cessna carrying 56 gallons of fuel slammed into the Bank of America tower, leaving the tail section of the plane dangling precariously from its side. The fuel did ...

&nbsp; 1-5-01 Kid didn't know it was '02 yet. I have prepared this statement in regards to the act I am about to commit. First of all, Osama bin Laden is absolutely justified in the terror he has caused on 9-11. He has brought a mighty nation to its knees! God blesses him and the others who helped make September 11th happen. The U.S. will have to face the consequences for its horrific actions against the Palestinian people and (illegible, could be Iraq?) by its allegiance with the monstrous Israelis who want nothing short of world domination! You will ...

Part of article from St. Pete Times after Sept 11. "Robert C. Cooper, president of National Aviation Flight School and Aviation Rentals, stressed that the extra security cannot be done at the expense of those of Middle Eastern descent. "I don't want to get involved in profiling," he said. "I have faith in my government. I have to work on the belief that my government has basis to allow them into the country and show them proper respect." end of article. Cooper is head of National Aviation Holdings that owned A/C. Many Florida flight schools train Arab students. Wonder if ...

Bank of America (BAC) must turn over excess funds from a record $335 million discrimination fine to community organizing groups. Critics say it's a "political backdoor" to subsidize Democrat-tied Acorn "clones." The unusual mandate is buried in a Justice Department filing last month detailing settlement terms with the nation's largest bank. Prosecutors had alleged BofA's Countrywide Financial mortgage unit discriminated against minority homebuyers in the years leading up to the financial crisis. Funds not passed out to alleged victims after two years will be handed out to "qualified" groups unconnected to the case that provide credit and housing counseling and...

Attorney General Eric Holder said a federal probe found discrimination against at least 200,000 qualified African American and Latino borrowers from 2004 to 2008, during the height of the housing market boom. He said that minority borrowers who qualified for prime loans were steered into higher-interest-rate subprime loans.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Shares of Bank of America Corp closed below $5 on Monday for the first time since the depths of the bear market in March 2009. The stock closed at $4.99, down 4 percent, after dropping as low as $4.92. The shares haven't closed below $5 since March 11, 2009. Shares of financial institutions have declined on worries about the global economy and possible exposure to sovereign defaults in Europe. Bank of America, in particular, faces concerns about whether it has enough capital to absorb mortgage-related losses and meet new international standards. With more than 275 million...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Another trading day and another low for Bank of America's stock. Shares of Bank of America dropped more than 3% Tuesday, hitting a new 52-week low of $5.03 -- its lowest level since March 12, 2009. After the close of trading Tuesday, Bank of America was one of 37 financial institutions downgraded by S&P. Beyond the S&P downgrade, trading could become even more complicated in Bank of America's stock, if it falls below $5. Under that threshold, many broker-dealers will not allow investors to buy or short a stock on margin, according to a spokesperson for...

WASHINGTON, November 22, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) — In a rare successful pushback against the pro-gay rights corporate culture, customers of Bank of America and the Cisco Corporation have won a promise from the two companies not to discriminate against employees or vendors who publicly oppose same-sex “marriage.” The National Organization for Marriage’s (NOM) Corporate Fairness Project announced Nov. 7 that both companies, which the leading gay rights group Human Rights Campaign had rated favorably, backtracked on a decision to cancel seminars by Frank Turek, who is a traditional marriage advocate. Frank Turek was 'fired' by both Cisco and Bank of America...

Police handcuffed and removed about 13 protesters from the Bank of America at Monarch Place early Monday afternoon as a crowd of fellow protesters grew outside. The protest started earlier in the day when about 100 people gathered at Morris and Central streets to protest bank foreclosures. The growing group marched downtown to the Bank of America Five of the protesters, already inside the bank as fellow protesters converged outside, sat down at a pre-arranged signal and refused to leave. Others blocked the bank entrances. Police Commissioner William J. Fitchet said about 13 the protesters involved with the sit-in and...

You know, I was getting a fond spot in my heart for Bank of America when it decided to charge a fee because of Chris Dodd's new tax. Then it goes and does something like this. We had a small disaster at our house. To whit, massive damage resulting in an insurance claim, half of which came to $32,568, for which I was issued a check to me and my mortgage company. Duly indorsed said check and sent it to the mortgage company who indorsed it themselves and sent it back after a week or so, telling me to deposit...

Bloomberg reports that Bank of America (BAC) has shifted about $22 trillion worth of derivative obligations from Merrill Lynch and the BAC holding company to the FDIC insured retail deposit division. Along with this information came the revelation that the FDIC insured unit was already stuffed with $53 trillion worth of these potentially toxic obligations, making a total of $75 trillion.

Monster Prediction From BofA: Another US Debt Downgrade Is Coming In Just A Few Weeks Joe Weisenthal | Oct. 22, 2011, 7:04 AM | 4,055 | 48 In an analyst note, Bofa/ML Ethan S. Harris drops a bit of a bombshell prediction: We expect a moderate slowdown in the beginning of next year, as two small policy shocks—another debt downgrade and fiscal tightening—hit the economy. The “not-so-super” Deficit Commission is very unlikely to come up with a credible deficit-reduction plan. The committee is more divided than the overall Congress. Since the fall-back plan is sharp cuts in discretionary spending, the...

Occupy Wall Street protesters in San Diego caused a downtown bank branch to shut down Thursday afternoon. The San Diego Union-Tribune says several dozen protesters sat down in front of a Bank of America branch, causing the bank to close early at 1:30 p.m. Access to ATMs were still allowed though. "It's not really a Bank of America thing," 26-year-old Michael Basillas told the Union-Tribune. "It's much more of a symbol, one of many banks that screw people over all the time." The Union-Tribune reports that there were about eight police officers watching over the 30 to 40 demonstrators as...

Bank of America's CEO defended his bank's new $5 fee on debit cards on Wednesday, saying that customers and shareholders understand the bank has a "right to make a profit." Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) CEO Brian Moynihan defended the move, which the bank announced last week in response to new caps on debit card swipe fees that the banks charge retailers. Bank of America's announcement of a new debit card fee was followed today by an announcement of new checking account fees by Citibank (C, Fortune 500). These new bank fees have fueled a populist backlash that has...

Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois is telling Americans to "Get the heck out of that bank", right on the Senate Floor. His comments are in response to Bank of America hiking fees on debit cards. Please consider BofA Customers Urged by Lawmakers to Quit Lender Over Debit Fee Congressional Democrats are pushing customers to quit doing business with Bank of America Corp. and one lawmaker is looking to make it easier for them to do so as the biggest U.S. lender announced plans for new debit-card fees. U.S. Representative Brad Miller, a North Carolina Democrat, introduced a bill today that would...

NEW YORK (AP) — Bank of America is closing down one of its mortgage units. The Charlotte, N.C. bank put its "correspondent lending" business up for sale on Aug. 31. It couldn't find a suitable buyer and has decided to close the business by the end of the year, said bank spokesman Terry Francisco.

President Obama slammed Bank of America’s $5 debit card card fee in an interview with ABCnews.com and Yahoo on Monday, calling the charge “not good business practice.” “You don’t have some inherent right just to, you know, get a certain amount of profit, if your customers are being mistreated,” he said. Later, he added, “this is exactly the sort of stuff that folks are frustrated by.” Obama is the latest of a chorus of critics to take aim at the new fee, which will be assessed monthly on customers who use their debit card to make purchases starting next year....

Dick Durbin urges customers to leave Bank of America By: Seung Min Kim October 3, 2011 04:26 PM EDT Angry about Bank of America’s new $5 monthly fee for using your debit card? Dick Durbin has some advice for you: Take your money elsewhere. “Bank of America customers, vote with your feet,” the Senate majority whip said in a floor speech Monday. “Get the heck out of that bank. Find yourself a bank or credit union that won’t gouge you for $5 a month and still will give you a debit card that you can use every single day. “What...

President Obama joined fellow Democrats in blasting a new fee on debit card users announced by Bank of America, arguing that banks do not have an "inherent right" to a certain amount of profits. The bank has come under a hail of criticism after it announced it would begin charging debit card users $5 a month, blaming the move on policymakers who curbed the amount of fees they could collect from retailers. "You don’t have some inherent right just to get a certain amount of profit if your customers are being mistreated," he said in an interview with ABC News....

(The news that BofA customers will soon shoulder a monthly charge for debit purchases sparks outrage — and threats to abandon the bank altogether.) Bank of America, proclaiming that its bottom line is hurt by new legislation that limits how much money banks can charge retailers for the privilege of letting customers pay with debit cards, announced that it will make up for those losses by charging customers a $5 monthly fee. The fee takes effect in 2012 and affects any customer who makes debit purchases. ATM and credit card transactions will remain free. Predictably, the bank's customers are not...

As I detailed here in February in "Dick Durbin Is Stealing Your Free Checking," thanks to price controls on debit card transactions from the Durbin Amendment of the 2010 Dodd-Frank "financial reform" law, free checking is going the way of the dodo bird. The Durbin price controls on interchange fees -- the so-called "swipe fees" that retailers pay to bank and credit unions that process debit card transactions, go into effect this Saturday, October 1, and are already showing more dire effects than originally predicted. Not only is free checking disappearing at a rapid pace -- a new Bankrate.com survey...

Bank of America Corp plans to charge customers who use their debit cards to make purchases a $5 monthly fee beginning early next year, joining other banks scrambling for new sources of revenue. U.S. banks have been looking for ways to increase revenue as regulations introduced since the financial crisis limited the use of overdraft and other fees.

More layoffs looming on Wall Street By Maureen Farrell September 13, 2011: 7:52 AM ET stock market As bank shares have dropped, these firms are taking stock of their employment rosters. Click chart for more market data. NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Wall Street should brace for an autumn of upward revisions among the big banks. Not for profits or revenue, but in the number of layoffs to come. Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) announced a five-fold increase Monday in its number of layoffs, noting that it plans to get rid of 30,000 jobs over a yet unspecified period. Earlier...

It was only a matter of time. A few weeks after every money losing firm in the US and the kitchen sink disclosed it would sue Bank of America in an accelerating attempt to salvage something through litigation, the worst case scenario for Brian Moynhian just got real. As of minutes ago, Norway's Government Pension Fund, which is another name for its Sovereign Wealth Fund, has just announced it is suing Bank of America for mortgage fraud. Not only that but it is also going after Countrywide, obviously, but far more importantly, is also suing KPGM, the auditor on the...

Bank of America will close up to 600 branches as part of its reorganization and cost-cutting moves, according to multiple reports this morning. Published and broadcast reports say Bank of America will split into separate consumer and commercial units, and that will lead to the branch closings. Charlotte's NewsChannel 36 says analysts believe the decision to split into two units and close the branches is a signal that Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan plans broader and deeper layoffs than those announced earlier this week.

Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs are among those expected to be named in the lawsuit. The agency that oversees U.S. mortgage markets is preparing to file suit against more than a dozen big banks, accusing them of misrepresenting the quality of mortgages they packaged and sold during the housing bubble, The New York Times reported on Thursday. The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is expected to file suit against Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank, among other banks, the Times reported, citing three...

U.S. Set To Sue Big Banks Over Bad Mortgages Agency says B of A, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, others misrepresented securities By NELSON D. SCHWARTZ The federal agency that oversees the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is set to file suits against more than a dozen big banks, accusing them of misrepresenting the quality of mortgage securities they assembled and sold at the height of the housing bubble, and seeking billions of dollars in compensation. The Federal Housing Finance Agency suits, which are expected to be filed in the coming days in federal court, are aimed at Bank...

The lawsuits against Bank of America are piling up. The latest comes from Minneapolis-based U.S. Bancorp, which wants Bank of America Corp. to repurchase poorly-written mortgages sold by Countrywide Financial in 2005. Bank of America bought Countrywide Financial Corp. in 2008. The lawsuit, which was filed in New York on Monday, claims Countrywide sold U.S. Bancorp a pool of over 4,000 loans originally valued at $1.75 billion. U.S. Bancorp claims Countrywide ignored its own mortgage underwriting guidelines when issuing those loans. According to the complaint, Countrywide agreed to repurchase loans within 90 days if any of the statements made in...

Dear Mr. Moynihan: I want to bring to your attention a recent decision made by your HR team that I think does not reflect your leadership of Bank of America. Dr. Frank Turek was fired as a vendor for his political and religious views, even though those views were never mentioned or expressed during his work at Bank of America. By way of background, Dr. Turek is an eight-year veteran of the United States Navy, and he and his wife have two sons serving in the United States Air Force. He has conducted leadership, teambuilding and other training programs for...

Warren Buffett has swooped in to save the day, this time for Bank of America. Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. agreed to invest $5 billion in Bank of America Corp. to help assure investors that the company will not go under. What's with all the recent do gooder deeds? Is this guy considering a run for president in 2012? Probably not. By investing and "bolstering confidence" in Bank of America, Buffett will be rewarded with a handsome $300 million annually. Maybe he can use some of that to donate to his "the rich deserve to be taxed" cause.Already stocks have...

....Tough-guy politicians may not actually make the best leaders, but they've been shown to be popular with voters and able to win major elections. Currently, no other leading candidate (not Mitt Romey, Ron Paul or Michele Bachmann) in the Republican field comes across as more macho than Perry. Evidence of Perry's machismo is surging on the internets. The Twitter feed @RickPerryFacts is a constant stream ofChuck Norris-esque statements about Perry. They're funny, but I also can't help but think they don't speak to a yearning of some part of the human psyche: A basic desire for a strong, tough-guy leader....

(RALEIGH) -- Texas Gov. Rick Perry has been in the Presidential race for barely more than a week, but Tom Jensen with Public Policy Polling said a recent round of polling in North Carolina and Colorado already ranks Perry close to deserving front runner status. "We're already finding Perry tied for the lead in both North Carolina and Colorado and these polls were conducted before he even officially entered the race," said Jensen. In North Carolina Perry is in a three way tie with Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin. Each getting 17-percent. Perry also led a poll conducted in Virginia...

The largest and most powerful financial institutions in the world all borrowed billions of dollars in emergency loans from the United States Federal Reserve during the financial crisis, totaling up to $1.2 trillion, a number that has remained secret until now. The $160 billion public bailout was "dwarfed," Bloomberg reports, by the Fed's covert lending, which included $107.3 billion to Morgan Stanley, $99.5 billion to Citigroup, and $91.4 billion to Bank of America. As one expert put it, "You’re talking about the aristocracy of American finance going down the tubes without the federal money."

Should we be surprised, frightened, disgusted or simply say "we knew it", that in the informal mixer just after Texas Governor and Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry spoke at a Politics and Eggs breakfast in Bedford, New Hampshire, an unknown gentlemen approaches a casual Perry like an Ian Flemming character, and proceeds to dead drop the following: "Bank of America... We will help you out"... and silently moves on. At least we know now who is funding what, and whose interests potential future president Perry will be paid to defend.

With Bank of America investors finally realizing it is game over for the company as a going concern, at this point there are just two options for Brian Moynihan: - the spin off of CFC as a bad bank, backstopped by the Fed, or - Chapter 11, which for a bank is essentially liquidation (and with CDS trading up 50 bps to 260 a bankruptcy seems increasingly inevitable). It also means that another TARP is on the way. And once America realizes that another several trillion have to be put into its insolvent banking sector, it will get quite violent....

Bank of America and Morgan Stanley have agreed to pay more than $22 million combined to settle federal civil charges on improperly foreclosing on military personnel, The Associated Press reports. The latest home or commercial real estate news Sample Between 2006 and 2009, the mortgage lenders foreclosed on 178 military members in 22 states without getting court approval. The military members affected will each receive $125,562, on average. The banks will also continue to investigate whether improper foreclosures occurred in 2009 through 2010.

When we wrote a few weeks ago about Eric Holder, Wikileaks and Bank of America, we focused on the irony of the U.S. Attorney General threatening to prosecute an organization (Wikileaks) that possibly holds the very information on which he might draw up his very first indictment of a major bank or Wall Street executive. Why hasn't Eric Holder asked to see the evidence, which Wikileaks claims to have, that executives at one of our largest banks may have committed serious crimes?Let's be honest, Holder doesn't really give a rip about financial crimes, but the media should at least be...

Angelo Mozilo The son of a butcher, Mozilo co-founded Countrywide in 1969 and built it into the largest mortgage lender in the U.S. Countrywide wasn't the first to offer exotic mortgages to borrowers with a questionable ability to repay them. In its all-out embrace of such sales, however, it did legitimize the notion that practically any adult could handle a big fat mortgage. In the wake of the housing bust, which toppled Countrywide and IndyMac Bank (another company Mozilo started), the executive's lavish pay package was criticized by many, including Congress. Mozilo left Countrywide last summer after its rescue-sale to...