‘Thank goodness’ for Countrywide, BofA exec says

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Bank of America Corp. is happier than ever with its 2008 purchase of mortgage lender Countrywide Financial, the bank’s home-loan chief says.

This year’s refinancing wave, fueled by lower mortgage rates, has been a boon to the business, Barbara Desoer, the head of BofA’s mortgage unit, told Bloomberg News in an interview Thursday.

‘Volume is good, application quality is holding up and the acquisition of Countrywide is really paying off for us with the additional capacity,’ Desoer said. ‘Thank goodness we have it.’

Her comments back up those of BofA CEO Ken Lewis, who last month said Calabasas-based Countrywide was one of the bank’s ‘stars’ this year, along with brokerage Merrill Lynch & Co., which BofA bought on Jan. 1.

Desoer, 56, also indicated that BofA wasn’t shrinking back from big-ticket mortgages: She said the bank was seeking to make more ‘jumbo’ loans, which can exceed $729,750 in the highest-cost areas. The company is quoting ‘extremely competitive’ rates on jumbos offered directly to consumers, she said.

From Bloomberg:

‘Bank of America has balance-sheet capacity and we’ve allocated it to jumbos given our presence in some of the states and regions where that’s important,’ she said. ‘We’re very much open for business.’

The bank sees an opportunity to do more of the loans with Merrill Lynch’s ‘mass-affluent’ customers, she said.

To keep up with mortgage demand, the bank has added roughly 3,000 employees to its origination unit, including about 1,000 new to the company and 500 shifted from its home-equity division, as well temporary workers, Desoer said.

She declined to discuss the quality of the mortgages already on BofA’s books, Bloomberg said.

-- Tom Petruno