Bank of America. The bigger they are, the harder they fall? (Charlotte: sales, 2009)

[anifani821]

Oh well. Lewis doubtless has plenty of $$ socked away plus a golden parachute. He could quit today and live a very upscale life til he dies. SO big deal. No sympathy here . . . at all.

[ZnGuy]

Charlotte economic growth will continue. Some major financial firms will be re-locating here in the future (from NY) due to CLT hiring pool of qualified people, lower costs and more.

[anifani821]

Originally Posted by ZnGuy

Charlotte economic growth will continue. Some major financial firms will be re-locating here in the future (from NY) due to CLT hiring pool of qualified people, lower costs and more.

I agree. We have a very robust workforce and the nation knows it!!! Also, we have international companies here and more will arrive in the coming years . . . so that will mean more jobs, as well.

BofA has never been the only game in town.

[chicagocubs]

OH, I am not afraid of BOA shutting down. I just think that it is ironic when they were so arrogant and pointing fingers at WB and Ken Thompson...and, now they are experiencing the same thing. (not to mention how they have treated their employees) No, Lewis is well taken care of, I am sure. But, what goes around, comes around....

[Chef Giorgio]

Originally Posted by chicagocubs

And, CW was (is) bigger and encompassed a larger share of the bad (toxic) loan market. I worked there for a small three month time period quite a few years ago and was appalled at the way they underwrote and approved loans. The potential for massive losses is far greater than the GW deal. The thing that brought Wachovia down was not what was paid for GW, but the loans themselves. Little known fact: CW also offered negative am mortgages as well as doing a lot of other questionable practices. That is why they are also under scrutiny by the feds. I think that the combination of CW & ML will bode badly for BOA and they will have a tough time getting through this.

Hi there, I may need to disagree w/u on this one. The gov will never let BankOfAMERICA fail, trust me on this one (thus the ML deal had to be inked). At first I too hated the CW deal but in retrospect since they paid very little for it, it wasn't that bad after all.

The main reason they made a move its b/c BoA more than anything wanted the profits from CW's Servicing. The biggest difference between this deal and WB's Golden West is that CW had already sold a ton of the loans they originated in the secondary market (tough luck investors out there) while GW kept did not and kept them in their portfolio, especially the pick a payment option ARMS.

In other words the biggest difference here is BoA's decent management and leadership versus Wachovia's INEPT one.
Golden West was a very reputable company for years. I still feel the pick a payment loan was a decent option for a certain number of borrowers and as a matter of fact GW had a pristine record for over 25 years and by the time the deal with WB was inked they had in fact the lowest pct of foreclosure of ANY lending company. Very impressive. But what WB lacked was again leadership and they FAILED to comply with due diligence and did not analyze the deal in detail thus missed how GW's model became eroded with the advent of the real estate bubble and bust.

GW's was prey of corrupt salesmen during those bubble years, who took an otherwise decent product for an specific segment of borrowers, and sold it to everyone else, thus the incredible, almost overnight rising defaults, etc.
Had WB done its homework they would have been the ones acquiring the failing companies of today not the other way around. Incredibly sad. How could these people still get golden parachutes is beyond me.

[adavi215]

Worse case scenario, if BoA leaves let's look at history. We were once a great textile center. Textiles went down, we turned into a huge banking center. Before then, we were the first to start the gold rush. Cali came with a better rush, people left CLT and we rebounded into another economy. Charlotte is more diverse than people think and we will rebound and we will continue to get stronger.

[CouponJack]

Originally Posted by Chef Giorgio

Hi there, I may need to disagree w/u on this one. The gov will never let BankOfAMERICA fail, trust me on this one (thus the ML deal had to be inked). At first I too hated the CW deal but in retrospect since they paid very little for it, it wasn't that bad after all.

The main reason they made a move its b/c BoA more than anything wanted the profits from CW's Servicing. The biggest difference between this deal and WB's Golden West is that CW had already sold a ton of the loans they originated in the secondary market (tough luck investors out there) while GW kept did not and kept them in their portfolio, especially the pick a payment option ARMS.

In other words the biggest difference here is BoA's decent management and leadership versus Wachovia's INEPT one.
Golden West was a very reputable company for years. I still feel the pick a payment loan was a decent option for a certain number of borrowers and as a matter of fact GW had a pristine record for over 25 years and by the time the deal with WB was inked they had in fact the lowest pct of foreclosure of ANY lending company. Very impressive. But what WB lacked was again leadership and they FAILED to comply with due diligence and did not analyze the deal in detail thus missed how GW's model became eroded with the advent of the real estate bubble and bust.

GW's was prey of corrupt salesmen during those bubble years, who took an otherwise decent product for an specific segment of borrowers, and sold it to everyone else, thus the incredible, almost overnight rising defaults, etc.
Had WB done its homework they would have been the ones acquiring the failing companies of today not the other way around. Incredibly sad. How could these people still get golden parachutes is beyond me.

Chef, you can make excuses till the cows come home. Any company who needs a 20 BILLION dollar bailout tells me there's something wrong w/the company. (And that might not even be enough)


I don't think Ken Lewis is feeling too comfortable these days...(well maybe he is, since he'll get a golden parachute if they let him go...)

[baybook]

They let Wachovia fail.... anything is possible

[atlantaATL]

Originally Posted by baybook

They let Wachovia fail.... anything is possible

Right i am pretty sure there are more Good jobs in charlotte but i think the Banks dominate the Charlotte Market And its more known for banking than anything else

[Gumbo]

BoA will not fail. The question is whether CITI and BoA are nationalized by the US Gov't. Prospect scares me as a shareholder of BoA.