Maybe if you are a close watcher of BofA you didn't learn anything; below are some of things about BofA I didn't know before reading this article:
"controls more than 12 percent of America's bank deposits (skirting a federal law designed to prohibit any firm from controlling more than 10 percent), as well as 17 percent of all American home mortgages."
"AMBAC, the second-largest bond insurer in America, went bankrupt in 2010 after paying out some $466 million in claims over 35,000 Countrywide home loans. After analyzing a dozen of the mortgage pools, AMBAC found that a staggering 97 percent of the loans didn't meet the stated underwriting standards."
"In the first half of last year, Bank of America paid $12.7 billion to settle claims brought by defrauded customers."
"Allstate claims it got stuck with $700 million in defective mortgages from Countrywide. The states of Iowa, Oregon and Maine, as well as the United Methodist Church, are suing Bank of America over fraudulent deals, claiming hundreds of billions in collective losses. And there are similar lawsuits for nonmortgage-related securities…Merrill Lynch brokers allegedly dumped $944 million in auction-rate securities … even though the brokers knew that the auction-rate market was already going bust. "
"for instance, intentionally ding depositors with bogus overdraft fees. (A class action suit accused Bank of America of heisting some $4.5 billion from its customers this way; the bank settled the suit for a mere 10 cents on the dollar.)"
"paid a $137 million fine for its sabotage of the government-contracting process"
"Last year, the bank was sued, alongside some of its competitors, for conspiring to rig the London Interbank Offered Rate."
"As part of an $8.4 billion settlement it entered into with multiple states over predatory lending practices, the bank agreed to provide homeowners with modified loans … the bank "materially and almost immediately violated" the terms, according to Nevada Attorney General"
"Just a few weeks ago, the government charged Bank of America with violating the Fair Housing Act"
"Last December, the bank settled with the Justice Department for $335 million over Countrywide's practice of dumping risky subprime loans on qualified black and Hispanic borrowers."
"In South Carolina, Bank of America won a contract to distribute unemployment benefits through prepaid debit cards – and then charged multiple fees to jobless folk who had the gall to withdraw their money from anywhere other than a Bank of America ATM. "
"they asked the bank to move a chunk of that mess from Merrill Lynch onto Bank of America's own balance sheet. Why? Because Bank of America is a federally insured depository institution. Which means that the FDIC, and by extension you and me, is now on the hook for as much as $55 trillion in potential losses. Black, the former regulator, calls the transfer an "obscenity. As a regulator, I would have never allowed it. Transferring risk to the insured institution crosses the reddest of red lines."
Fair enough and no, I am not such an observer that I would know all those things. But many of those “facts” are loaded with motives and intentions, which are not factual. (“Not factual” doesn’t mean false, it just means non-objective and unproveable.)
I suppose what I am getting at is that critics need to play a better, more empirical game if they are to succeed. This article is emotionally manipulative, by design.
Lawsuits, government charges, settlements, contracts -- these all seem factual to me. Only some emotional words of keep "gall" (which I agree are manipulative, the facts should stand on their own) add non-journalistic color.
There are many egregious wrongdoings there, but I find this one particularly pernicious:
> "Last year, the bank was sued, alongside some of its competitors, for conspiring to rig the London Interbank Offered Rate."
LIBOR + the US T-Bill rate (plus the Federal Funds rate?) is generally considered the risk-free rate of return, upon which all other interest rates in the economy are indexed. I'm sure there's nothing more heady and master-of-the-universe-feeling than manipulating the entire world that way, but it's pretty fucked nonetheless.
One problem with the increasing concentration of wealth and the financialization of the global (or at least Western) economies is that banks and ibanks are becoming more and more able to play games like this with markets. Beyond a certain threshold of capital and leverage, market manipulation becomes not only possible but a viable business strategy.
I know it's happening now, especially with HFT and algo systems accounting for over half the volume on major exchanges, just not the extent of it. The incentives are getting seriously out of whack.
"controls more than 12 percent of America's bank deposits (skirting a federal law designed to prohibit any firm from controlling more than 10 percent), as well as 17 percent of all American home mortgages."
"AMBAC, the second-largest bond insurer in America, went bankrupt in 2010 after paying out some $466 million in claims over 35,000 Countrywide home loans. After analyzing a dozen of the mortgage pools, AMBAC found that a staggering 97 percent of the loans didn't meet the stated underwriting standards."
"In the first half of last year, Bank of America paid $12.7 billion to settle claims brought by defrauded customers."
"Allstate claims it got stuck with $700 million in defective mortgages from Countrywide. The states of Iowa, Oregon and Maine, as well as the United Methodist Church, are suing Bank of America over fraudulent deals, claiming hundreds of billions in collective losses. And there are similar lawsuits for nonmortgage-related securities…Merrill Lynch brokers allegedly dumped $944 million in auction-rate securities … even though the brokers knew that the auction-rate market was already going bust. "
"for instance, intentionally ding depositors with bogus overdraft fees. (A class action suit accused Bank of America of heisting some $4.5 billion from its customers this way; the bank settled the suit for a mere 10 cents on the dollar.)"
"paid a $137 million fine for its sabotage of the government-contracting process"
"Last year, the bank was sued, alongside some of its competitors, for conspiring to rig the London Interbank Offered Rate."
"As part of an $8.4 billion settlement it entered into with multiple states over predatory lending practices, the bank agreed to provide homeowners with modified loans … the bank "materially and almost immediately violated" the terms, according to Nevada Attorney General"
"Just a few weeks ago, the government charged Bank of America with violating the Fair Housing Act"
"Last December, the bank settled with the Justice Department for $335 million over Countrywide's practice of dumping risky subprime loans on qualified black and Hispanic borrowers."
"In South Carolina, Bank of America won a contract to distribute unemployment benefits through prepaid debit cards – and then charged multiple fees to jobless folk who had the gall to withdraw their money from anywhere other than a Bank of America ATM. "
"they asked the bank to move a chunk of that mess from Merrill Lynch onto Bank of America's own balance sheet. Why? Because Bank of America is a federally insured depository institution. Which means that the FDIC, and by extension you and me, is now on the hook for as much as $55 trillion in potential losses. Black, the former regulator, calls the transfer an "obscenity. As a regulator, I would have never allowed it. Transferring risk to the insured institution crosses the reddest of red lines."