He is speaking to a packed house at a Town Hall Los Angeles luncheon, and I will update later with video clips and Q&A. But here are highlights from an advanced copy of the speech.
Lewis says BofA wants to help struggling homeowners stay in there homes, but admits he can’t help everyone.
“The first step is to review how we got here,” the CEO says in prepared remarks. “There were a lot of factors that played a role. Think of it as a ‘perfect financial storm.’”
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
hmmm ‘perfect financial storm’ – ?
It is more like
the CountryWide BlackHole,
the CW Twilight Zone,
and the pointing fingers, throw the rock through the glass window & hide Mozillo…
Does Lewis (BOFA) have any idea how toxic some of these loans are?
Does anyone out there think that this was a bad idea for BOFA to pick up the mess CW left behind?
Does that merge make good business sense?
What about all the lawsuits etc now against CountryWide who takes that hit now?
Here we go again…..unfortunately there are those that take responsibility for poor financial decision making, and those that want to blame others. I am Lookinthemirror’s twin brother out to make people aware that the reason this country is in the situation it is in is due to 3 reasons:
1. The American consumer took out more debt than they could afford.
2. Banks that were looking for yield allowed people to borrow money that should NEVER HAVE! This is now reflected in their failure (INDYMAC) or depressed stock prices (most financial institutions).
3. There are always cycles of easy money, than tight credit due to supply and demand. The consumer has to be astute enough to sign up for a loan that fits within their budget.
This is not always about consumer getting a loan within their budget. BOA is my lender. I went to closing last year in August 2007. I just found out from Dept. of Insurance that BOA did not send lenders closing instructions for 4 days, which means they were not at the closing table. That is lender fraud and closer fraud because closer should never do something illegal that someone tells you to do. I was told in beginning I was getting a Fannie Mae certain program, documents were recorded at closing and just talked to Fannie Mae last week and they told me I do not have this loan. They are thinking about having BOA repurchase the loan because of lender fraud.
You surely have figured out why BOA wanted to buy these loans because Lewis could say he was #1 bank instead of countrywide. I have been with BOA 15 years and they were indeed quality, but all that has changed, now they are greed and quantity and it makes me sick.
Lewis is now helping countrywide customers and leaving BOA customers at the roadside which is very unfair.
But I believe what goes around comes around. BOA will have their day.