February 26, 2010
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News: BofA Tells A Story In SEC Filing
In its Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing, Bank of America (BofA) haled itself by saying they were the number one U.S. retailer of deposits and the number one U.S. issuer of debit cards. The bank also noted that it is the number two credit card company in American and number one in Europe. In the credit card giant's 750 page filing, BofA listed the $29.9 million compensation package it gave to Thomas Montag who headed the company's global banking and markets units. The compensation package was also provided in part to fulfill obligations from the Merrill Lynch & Co. acquisition. The bank's new Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Brian Moynihan received $6.51 million and Joe Price, the head of consumer banking which includes credit card management, received $6.12 million. The bank's retired CEO, Kenneth D. Lewis received a whopping $80 million in benefits.
The giant credit card company received a great deal of criticism and is currently in the heat of a criminal lawsuit over alleged fraud when it failed to disclose the financial position of Merrill Lynch to its stockholders prior to voting on the proposed acquisition. In addition to hiding the true facts on Lynch's financial position, BofA used taxpayers' money from the bailout program to pay Lynch employees large bonuses. Consumers were outraged as the bank stiffed them with high credit card interest rates and fees to reward employees that had run the company down into the ground.
Bank of America's filing also highlighted and praised its mortgage business saying the bank has over 8,900 mortgage loan officers and is the number one mortgage provider in the U.S. Bank of America is based out of Charlotte, North Carolina. The bank expects to spend a great deal this year on legal fees as it continues to battle lawsuits over the Merrill Lynch acquisition as well as several class action suits by credit card customers protesting deceptive and harsh treatment over recent years during the recession.