Bank of America Corp.'s first-quarter income fell 39 percent on higher costs related to its mortgage business and higher litigation expenses. The bank also settled a claim over faulty mortgage investments and set aside less money to cover soured loans.The Charlotte, N.C. bank on Friday said it earned $1.7 billion, or 17 cents per share, compared with $2.8 billion, or 28 cents a share in the first quarter of last year. The earnings fell short of the 28 cents a share estimated by analysts surveyed by FactSet.
Revenue fell to $26.9 billion from $32 billion in the same period last year.
The nation's largest bank by assets also announced that the bank's chief risk officer, Bruce Thompson, will become chief financial officer, replacing Chuck Noski, who was named vice chairman. Noski couldn't relocate to Charlotte to fulfill his CFO duties because of an illness of a close family member, the bank said in a statement.
Bank of America continued to fight losses, lawsuits and higher costs related to its mortgage businesses. Its real estate services business reported a loss of $2.4 billion compared to loss of $2.1 billion for the same period in 2010.
The bank is fighting lawsuits from investors and insurers who say they were duped into buying mortgage loans that were based on fraudulent documents. Bank of America set aside a $1 billion in the first quarter to repurchase those mortgages. That's on top of $4.1 billion that the bank had already set aside in the fourth quarter of 2010 and $526 million in the first quarter of last year.
Litigation expenses related mostly to mortgages were up $352 million from the first quarter of 2010.
Separately, the bank paid $1.1 billion in cash to Assured Guarantee, an insurer that had also said the bank should repurchase shoddy mortgages. The bank also entered into an agreement worth $470 million to share losses on additional mortgages.
Much of Bank of America's mortgage-related woes stem from its 2008 acquisition of Countrywide Financial Corp., once the largest U.S. mortgage lender, which was facing bankruptcy after payment defaults and foreclosures.
Bank of America's mortgage issues overshadowed better performance at its other divisions. Its Merrill Lynch division set records for revenue, asset management fees and brokerage income.
As the largest U.S. bank serving about half of the nation's households, Bank of America also provides a snapshot for the health of the American consumer and the overall economy. The bank said the number of customers who were late on their credit card payments by 30 days or more fell to all-time lows in the first quarter. It was the sixth straight quarterly decline.
The bank set aside a total of $3.8 billion to cover losses from loans in the quarter, down sharply from $9.8 billion in the same period a year ago. That reflects an improving economy and fewer BofA customers falling behind on their debts. The company's shares rose 8 cents to $13.22 in pre-market trading.
Litigation expenses related mostly to mortgages were up $352 million from the first quarter of 2010.
Separately, the bank paid $1.1 billion in cash to Assured Guarantee, an insurer that had also said the bank should repurchase shoddy mortgages. The bank also entered into an agreement worth $470 million to share losses on additional mortgages.
Much of Bank of America's mortgage-related woes stem from its 2008 acquisition of Countrywide Financial Corp., once the largest U.S. mortgage lender, which was facing bankruptcy after payment defaults and foreclosures.
Bank of America's mortgage issues overshadowed better performance at its other divisions. Its Merrill Lynch division set records for revenue, asset management fees and brokerage income.
As the largest U.S. bank serving about half of the nation's households, Bank of America also provides a snapshot for the health of the American consumer and the overall economy. The bank said the number of customers who were late on their credit card payments by 30 days or more fell to all-time lows in the first quarter. It was the sixth straight quarterly decline.
The bank set aside a total of $3.8 billion to cover losses from loans in the quarter, down sharply from $9.8 billion in the same period a year ago. That reflects an improving economy and fewer BofA customers falling behind on their debts. The company's shares rose 8 cents to $13.22 in pre-market trading.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
4-15-2011 @ 11:42PM
Al Gomez said...
Bank of America? Nooooo, not them. The same Bank of America that illegally foreclosed on all those properties? The same bank of America that was the first to jack up the ATM fees to $3.00 per transaction? The same Bank of America that asked for and received billions from the Federal Government to stay afloat and then used some of those funds to reward their executives with millions in bonuses? Noooo, not that Bank of America. The very same bank that if I were to apply for a job today would make sure I was a totally clean person, which I am, before they even considered my applicaton? No, not that Bank of America. As far as I am concerned they should go under and it would be the best for all. Unfortunately they also contribute millions to politicians election coffers. Does that tell you something?
4-16-2011 @ 2:21AM
BHarrison said...
As demonstrated throughout the boom to bust economic cycle, and thereafter, the bankers could care less about the losses to the American people or the damage to our national economy as long as they can fill thier pockets with money . . . is is sheer absolute unconscionable corruption to the worst degree.
The vast majority of the wealthy of our nation is profiting from the criminal exploitation of the American people, and the destruction of our economy. These people are only concerned about increasing their welath without regard to morality or legalities. The "Golden Rule": "He who has the gold makes the rules." (Or can commit crimes with impunity.) That is the basic underlying problem in these matters. They need to be prosecuted for their blatant crimes.
4-16-2011 @ 2:27AM
BHarrison said...
Well, while the earning may have fallen "for the stock holder investors", it has not impacted the exorbitant salaries, benefits, bonuses, etc. for the CEO and BAC's upper management, has it? And in 2010 those individuals recieved record salaries and bonuses, didn't they? So, the "criminal management" who helped to orchestrate and to perpetuate the fraudulent and unsound practices that have exploited the investors and the bank's customers, have vastly profitted from their "crimes", right? Shouldn't they have been fired and probably prosecuted for what they did with premeditation and without regard for the economic damage that they were creating?
4-16-2011 @ 8:30AM
Phil said...
Taxpayers on Main street suffer from all of wallstreets games with money, supported by the Feds, the Treasury dept as they are all buddies in the same fields of endeavors. Bank of A being the worst if one could imagine one worse than the other. Naturally another bailout is on its way. The Feds have their hands in on it, its a circle of criminal activities, put main street in debt, give it to the Banks, BS everyone into thinking its for the good of the economy and saving main street from a collapse and the banks returned a huge portion back to their FED buddies in return. We are the victims of an in your face crime syndicate.
4-17-2011 @ 4:00AM
ceaserlionel said...
To the CEO of BankBoston
This letter is formal notice, to your bank and to all your partner
banks, allowing you ten days to provide me a valid explanation that I
can accept, although I cannot say sincerely that I assume one is
available.
On October 22, 1997, you signed a contract between Biosite Inc. and
BankBoston and its partners. This was a ten-year contract expiring on
October 22, 2007, with a stolen patent suddenly and inexplicably
presented to Biosite so that BankBoston received the grand honor of
distributing, through Biosite, an extremely significant patented
innovation stolen from Nogdan of Israel. The contract concerns a
patented innovation of great import, unique in the world, which can
isolate any protein at all from the genome a million times better, in
terms of quantity, than any other of the world’s most modern
technologies, and thus can produce human antibodies in a very short
time, amounting to an hour or two instead of the 6 to 14 months
required by the hybridoma method. The latter, invented by the founder
of Biosite himself, Howard Greene, provides very expensive and
unstable human antibodies, vulnerable to protein cross-reactions that
consign the whole effort to the trash bin, but in the entire world
there had been no other method.
This new, revolutionary patent, unique in the world, using blood and
not inside the cell like the molecular technique, is US Patent no.
5,869,409, applied for in August 1993 and issued February 9, 1999. It
happens that for this patent, with Ms. Rivka Zusman as inventor, all
marketing and development rights were already assigned by Rivka Zusman
on February 15, 1994, to Nogdan Immunochemicals Ltd. of Gilo,
Jerusalem, consisting of four partners: the Zusman couple holding 50%
and I, Roland Taieb, together with my wife Sarah Shoval, the other
50%. By this contract, complete global exclusivity in marketing
belongs to Mr. Roland Taieb, i.e. to myself, with validity even
confirmed, as of May 29, 2000, by the Supreme Court of Israel (whose
irreversible decision I attach for you) as well as by a further legal
decision, of November 19, 1998, which is very harsh and severe
regarding any company dealing with the patented Nogdan innovation
without the prior written consent of Mr. Roland Taieb.
Starting in September 1995, the Zusmans, together with their attorney
Yair Green, met with Howard Greene of Biosite, a small company of no
great value, traded on the Second Marché and selling an apparatus for
detecting the level of swallowed or injected drugs. Nothing more! It
happens that the Abbott company, of the USA, filed a complaint against
Biosite for stealing the patent, on the grounds that the patent
belongs to Abbott and was stolen from them by Biosite. Biosite paid
$5.5 million in order to continue operations rather than close its
doors. This is on record throughout Biosite. However, Biosite, the
co-inventor of the hybridoma method, immediately licensed to others,
for two years as of September 22, 1995, the patent stolen from Nogdan.
Because the first results were so unique globally, Biosite had itself
registered on NASDAQ as of February 12, 1997, and it was very well
received on the market.
At the same time, since 1996, years of clinical trials were under way
for Medarex Inc. and its transgenic mice. The trials all succeeded,
as the mice provided human antibodies at a level of 100%, whereas
Medarex had previously never exceeded 85% and thus had achieved
nothing of value for medicines, vaccines, etc. On December 1, 1999,
Biosite and Medarex quietly filed for a patent under which, using the
extraordinary capabilities of the patent stolen from Nogdan, the mice
would provide human antibodies at a level of 100% and thus change the
face of the new medicine. The announcement was made worldwide through
the media on December 6, 1999, and immediately Medarex exploded upward
on NASDAQ by 3500% — absolutely unique in NASDAQ history! But
Medarex was thoroughly concealing its Biosite connection and the
stolen patent. It did not announce its collaboration with Biosite
until June 1, 2000 (or two days after the Israeli Supreme Court’s
decision!), which was six months after the successful murine
experiments, so that the gigantic commercial success of Medarex and
Abgenix would not have the stolen Nogdan patent as its one and only
progenitor.
Medarex immediately lined up Abgenix (and subsequently Pfizer) to
create a duopoly rather than retain a monopoly forbidden by American
law, and it collected $39.7 million for being one of the world’s
only two exploiters of a unique, but stolen, patent.
Then suddenly on October 22, 1997, BankBoston and its partners signed
a ten-year contract with Biosite so that Biosite, with no explanation
whatever, suddenly became the licensee of the patent stolen from
Nogdan. Immediately on learning this, Johnson & Johnson acquired
Biosite. We are demanding 3 thousand million dollars per year in
indemnification from Biosite for their use of the stolen patent. The
sum for the fourteen years between 1996 and 2010 is 42 thousand
million dollars, but that is what they bought into. (A copy of their
letter is attached.)
Moreover, more than 1200 laboratories around the world are using the
stolen Nogdan patent and prospering enormously. All these companies
have been warned via Fedex at least twice.
As of the start of August 2010, entire teams of attorneys will be
doing everything possible to recover damages, with interest, from
every company, and never less than 50% of their 2007 turnover.
More significant yet : In December 2004, Biosite notified us, in a
registered letter — absolute proof — from the Biosite
director-general of intellectual property, that they were the owners
of prior art for this patent and that they were prepared to have the
patent, which they had stolen from Nogdan, annulled! (His harsh but
absurd letter is attached.) Admitting, beyond a possible doubt, that
they were working with the stolen patent, they claim that it is theirs
by virtue of prior art beginning in 1995. Our patent was filed for in
August 1993, rendering their case hopeless.
For BankBoston, matters are more serious a thousandfold, because you
and your partners are the largest American banks and it is neither
admissible nor excusable that someone has cheated and misled you.
Following are my two prescriptions, according to which I may or may
not reduce my extremely firm demand for damages and interest amounting
to $75 thousand million.
1) Explain, if you can, how such a patent, belonging to Nogdan, would
be in your possession since 1997, when the patent was assigned its
number only on February 9, 1999, so that in 1997 it was still held
secret in the vaults of the US Patent Office.
2) Please provide me a list of the companies that signed for the
patent with you, and a copy of the contracts.
In addition:
3) What is the exact role of Wellington and of Kopp? What about
their millions of blocked shares? What are they doing, and on what
authority?
4) If you refuse to cooperate, I promise I will have everything in
your banks, and all your property, confiscated against the debt to us.
5) If you show good will, then the sum will be reduced in accordance
with your good will because at least proof will exist that for your
own part, you were also cheated.
I repeat that only ten days are allotted to you. We have lost too
much of our time and money — from 1995 to 2010 is fifteen years —
and we refuse to pointlessly lose more.
I await your prompt reply.
Roland Taieb
Marketing Manager
22 Zalman Shazar St., Ramat Poleg, tel : 972-9-8850635, fax :
972-9-8850685, cell : 972-522-516153
4-17-2011 @ 4:17PM
Rick Peterson said...
I closed my B of A accounts when they started blatantly marketing to Illegal Aliens a few years ago. I spoke to a B of A teller that said he mom did the same thing. This is a disgrace!
4-18-2011 @ 12:29PM
Doug said...
I hope they don't screw me!!
4-18-2011 @ 8:45PM
Catzs said...
Good. I hope they go out of business.
4-19-2011 @ 1:02AM
Charlie said...
$14 fee per month for an average checking balance under $2000 is way too much to charge to hold our money. The Obama-Pelosi bailouts ruined lots of people because of Fat-Cat's greediness
4-19-2011 @ 1:42AM
shopknuckleheads said...
payback's a...what is the rest of that phrase?
4-19-2011 @ 1:49AM
Andy said...
Time for big bonuses!
4-19-2011 @ 2:41AM
Patrick said...
It is time Americans demanded, in force and numbers, that Congress address the scams these bankers have been playing on the American public and tax payers as well as international investors. If you are not writing your Congressional representatives (which takes about as long to do as it took to comment here) YOU are part of the problem. When the e mail boxes of Congress are over flowing with demands for justice, then maybe, just maybe, things will start to change. Until then, you are wasting everyone's time posting here.
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4-21-2011 @ 11:15AM
Yon said...
BoA has acquired an unenviable reputation for ripping they victims... er, customers off, in the last few years. It is amazing they still are in business.
4-22-2011 @ 3:41PM
Mike said...
Damn I must have forgotten to pay them again this month.
4-23-2011 @ 1:34PM
The Duck said...
Bank of America is nothing but wanna be politicians that want to fleece you of your money - yes, even your gold teeth. I have never been treated so rude as when I had an account with them. Another travesty to the banking industry is Chase Bank. I will not accept any customers checks from Chase bank - - I don't care if is made of gold, I will not accept any Chase checks. I don't want their name corrupting my business.
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4-24-2011 @ 2:14PM
rena said...
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4-25-2011 @ 6:50AM
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The US government extended a new lifeline Friday to Bank of America, injecting another 20 billion dollars in capital and guaranteeing shaky assets to help it weather the grinding financial crisis.
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4-25-2011 @ 12:17PM
Azhot1 said...
Interesting. BOA, also made national news about giving tons of loans to illegals in this country, way before the domino's of the financial collapse actually took hold. You reap what you sew.