Bank of America: Low-Balance Alerts Part of Overdraft Plan

In addition to its ground-breaking plan this summer to end overdraft fees on its debit card purchases, Bank of America is also going to offer alerts to online customers if their checking account balance is too low or overdrawn. The nation’s largest bank will end the frustrating and much-maligned practice of overdraft fees on debit cards, but customers can still be charged for being overdrawn on checking accounts by writing too many checks or having too many debits through automated bill-pay.

Bank of America to End Debit Card Overdraft Fees

Just about when new rules take effect forcing banks to halt overdraft fees unless a customer opts-in, Bank of America has decided to do away with overdraft fees on debit card purchases altogether. The nation’s largest bank stands to lose tens of millions, or more, in fee revenue. And now may force top competitors to follow suit.

Bank of America Shifts Credit Card Unit, Leadership

Bank of America, the nation’s top lender and second-largest credit card issuer, is combining its troubled Global Card Services with its deposits business under Susan Faulkner, who’s been with the bank for 25 years, BofA said today. Faulkner will now head the combined business of “Global Card Services and Deposits” following the resignation of Ric Struthers, who was a principal founder of MBNA and has marshaled Bank of America through the hardship of mounting credit losses.

CitiMortgage, GMAC Lead with 50% Rate in Active Modifications

Each with 50 percent share of eligible borrowers under active mortgage modifications, both CitiMortgage and GMAC Mortgage claim the top spot as the most proficient servicers under the government’s foreclosure rescue program. Eligible borrowers are those at least 60 days delinquent on their mortgage. In the category of total modifications, CitiMortgage is fourth with 122,176; and GMAC sixth with 32,824. But the two lenders have consistently led in the ability to convert those eligible into the program.

Drama Over Banking: Netflix Liked More Than BofA, Chase

The online video stalwart may have an advantage in the public opinion arena. It didn’t have to take a government bailout and its executives aren’t associated with Wall Street’s elite. Nonetheless, customers feel much better about their Netflix than their big banks: particularly Bank of America and Chase, according to the latest report from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI).

Bank of America Finalizes 12,700 Mortgage Reductions

Bank of America said it has provided permanent mortgage relief to 12,700 borrowers facing possible foreclosure as of January, up from 3,200 reported the previous month under the government’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). The nation’s largest mortgage lender, which had faced some criticism late last year for its conversion rate, reported today that it has another 13,700 permanent modifications that “are pending, meaning final modified loan terms have been approved and documents have been sent for the customers’ signatures.”

Bank of America Marks 1 Million ‘Clarity’ Summaries

Bank of America has reached a milestone in its campaign to become more user-friendly. It has surpassed 1 million “Clarity Commitments” — its new one-page summaries mailed out to potential homebuyers, the nation’s largest lender said today. BofA heralded the occasion with an official statement, and also announced it had sent out similar summaries to 40 credit card customers.

Bank of America Strikes Back; Reports $758B in Credit Extended

In the midst of an uproar over the sector’s weak small business lending and its own alleged role in the financial crisis, Bank of America today struck back with a report on its role in the economic recovery that includes extending $758 billion in 2009. It provided more credit “than any other U.S. bank,” BofA said in the headline of its press release – one day after the New York Attorney General filed a civil fraud suit against the top lender and two former top executives alleging that the government and shareholders were misled in its 2008 merger with Merrill Lynch.

Bank of America Chief: It’s About Managing Risk, Not How Big

The CEO of Bank of America, the nation’s top lender, said his institution is not too big and that the central issue for those seeking financial sector reform shouldn’t be size but how “you manage risk.” Brian Moynihan, who took over BofA’s top job on Jan. 1, told CNBC in an interview from the World Economic Forum in Davos that the U.S. government should continue to play the role of stabilizing the industry to avoid another financial crisis. But Moynihan said the answer is not in breaking up banks…

Bank of America Signs Up for 2nd-Lien Foreclosure Rescues

Bank of America, the nation’s largest lender, has become the first to agree to modify second-lien mortgages in a yet-to-start new component of the government’s much-criticized foreclosure rescue program. “The formal action follows a verbal commitment to the program made by Bank of America’s Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan during a meeting with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner earlier this month,” Bank of America said today in a statement.

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