CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Bank of America, seeking approval of its Countrywide Financial takeover, plans to modify at least $40 billion of mortgages during the next two years to keep customers in their homes.
The move will help as many as 265,000 homeowners, Liam McGee, president of the bank’s global consumer and small-business unit, said Monday in Los Angeles at a Federal Reserve hearing on the purchase. The company will donate $2 billion to communities in the next 10 years, including funds for organizations giving advice on foreclosures, he said.
“No one benefits from a foreclosed home,” McGee said. “It is bad business for banks.”
Bank of America is trying to persuade regulators to approve the $4 billion Countrywide takeover, which would give the bank a role in one of every four U.S. home loans. Regulators and lawmakers have blamed Countrywide for lax lending standards that contributed to record U.S. defaults and then not doing enough to prevent foreclosures.
Bank of America fell 12 cents to $38.18 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Countrywide dropped 1 cent to $5.83 and has declined 35 percent this year.
U.S. foreclosure filings jumped 57 percent and repossessions more than doubled in March from a year earlier, according to data vendor RealtyTrac Inc. A record 18.6 million U.S. homes stood empty in the first quarter, the U.S. Census Bureau said.
Bank of America and Countrywide have doubled their staffs to handle troubled mortgages, and that level will be maintained for a year after the acquisition, McGee said.
Bank of America said the headquarters of its consumer mortgage operations would be in Calabasas, Calif., where Countrywide is based.
