BofA to Cut Securities Holdings by $100 Billion

Bank of America Corp. plans to permanently reduce its securities holdings by at least $100 billion over the next couple of years to provide additional capacity for loans, Chief Financial Officer Alvaro de Molina said Thursday.

De Molina did not specify what kinds of securities the bank planned to sell, but the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank has already begun paring its holdings.

Bank of America ended September with $195.2 billion of securities on its balance sheet, down from $235.8 billion at the end of June, and incurred $469 million of net securities losses. De Molina said the bank expected to cut securities by $50 billion to $60 billion by year’s end.

“We’ve adopted a plan to permanently reduce the level of securities by at least $100 billion over the next couple of years,” De Molina said on a conference call discussing third-quarter results.

As of June 30, Bank of America held more than $208 billion of mortgage-backed securities, according to regulatory filings.