Bank of America Corporation, Q1 2010 Earnings Call, Apr-16-2010

On February 23, 2010, pursuant to stockholder approval, Bank of America Corporation amended its amended and restated certificate of incorporation to provide for an increase in the number of shares of the corporations common stock authorized for issuance from 10 billion to 11.3 billion. The Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation of the corporation is hereby amended by changing the number of shares of stock the corporation is authorized to issue, so that, the first sentence of Article 3 thereof shall read as follows: the number of shares, par value $0.01 per share, the corporation is authorized to issue is 11,400,000,000, divided into 11,300,000,000 common shares and 100,000,000 preferred shares. The foregoing amendment was duly adopted in accordance with the provisions of Section 242 of the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware.

Two lawsuits filed in US District Court in Boston claim Wells Fargo and Bank of America have not followed federal rules for mortgage loan modifications, leaving some homeowners stuck in foreclosure 'limbo'. According to one of the lawsuits, Wells Fargo Bank North America did not honor agreements with Wilfredo and Odalid Bosque of Leominster and Germano DePina of Roxbury that would have made their temporary loan modifications permanent through the US Treasury's Home Affordable Modification Program. In a second suit, Patricia Johnson of Salem alleged Bank of America Corp. did not abide by a similar arrangement that was intended to reduce her mortgage payments. 'When a large financial institution promises to modify an eligible loan to prevent foreclosure, homeowners who live up to their end of the bargain expect that promise to be kept', lawyer Gary Klein wrote in the complaints. The bank issued a statement saying that some customers who participated in the federal program ultimately did not qualify for a permanent loan modification. 'In these instances, the bank will work to determine if another foreclosure prevention option is available to them. According to the lawsuits, Wells Fargo and Bank of America accepted billions of dollars in taxpayer funds in 2008 through the Troubled Asset Relief Program and agreed to participate in the modification program, which offered incentive payments to banks that provided modified mortgages to eligible borrowers. Wells Fargo services loans through a unit called America's Servicing Co., and Bank of America services loans through BAC Home Loans Service LP. The suits said both banks received $1,000 for every successful loan modification through the federal program. According to the suits, if the homeowners made three successive payments under temporarily modified loan terms, it would trigger a second stage 'in which the homeowner is offered a permanent modification'. DePina, one of the plaintiffs, said he began making $1,384 monthly payments to America's Servicing Co. in September to save his Roxbury home, yet has never received any notification that the terms have become permanent. DePina, a warehouse worker, said he bought a single-family home for $420,000 in 2006 at a high interest rate, figuring he could refinance at a more affordable rate after a few months. When the housing market collapsed, however, he was unable to refinance and fell behind on payments. Eventually, he stopped making them. Last month, the Treasury reported that Wells Fargo had more than 350,000 loans eligible for the program in its portfolio, but of the loans, 8,424 - or 2% - had resulted in permanent modifications, according to the lawsuits. Klein said that based on the number of loan modifications at issue, he believes the amount in dispute exceeds $5 million. Klein said he would ask a judge to give the lawsuits class-action status.