The lead story in yesterday's Sunday Business Section of the New York TIMES focused on Brian Moynihan, the CEO of Bank of America ("Batting Cleanup at Bank of America", written by Nelson D. Schwartz). The article presents a fair picture of the problems Mr. Moynihan is facing and commends his sincere efforts to straighten out many issues at Bank of America, including credit card abuses by the Bank
As a counterpoint, however, Mr. Schwartz, points out "if Mr. Moynihan can't get a handle on the foreclosure furor and restore the company's reputation as a fair-minded lender, his wins will continue to be drowned out" I heartily agree.
In connection with representing clients who are behind in their mortgages (1 in 10 of the 14 million Bank of America mortgages is "past due"), I, a Massachusetts real estate attorney with over 42 years of experience in the field, have encountered either insouciance or ignorance in trying to help my Bank of America cusotmers.
Put aside all of the procedural errors which have been made by over-zealous foreclosure mills that have caused Bank of America no end of terrible publicity. Bank of America is by far the worst of all Lenders with whom I have worked in sincerely trying to work with troubled Borrowers who have fallen behind.
Most of the Borrowers I represent were perfectly qualified for their mortgages when they took them out. Circumstances after their purchase or refinance changed. They lost their job; there was a serious illness in the family or a divorce. They fell behind, and they could not then pay.
Now, many of the people I represent are back working or are healthy. They want to get back on track, maybe even able to resume the same amount of payments they were making before their problems. Bank of America is the leader in turning a deaf ear to offers to start making current payments, and develop a solution for the arrearages at a later point. Other lenders have seen the wisdom in this approach, not Bank of America.
I hope there is some person or person at Bank of America who tracks articles or posts about the Bank. Maybe someone will want to speak with me who is sypathetic and has a brain. So far, I have not experienced a relationship with that person. It is really an American Tragedy.
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