North Carolina and National Consumer Advocacy Groups Release Report Calling for Responsible Bank Practices and Assistance for Families at Risk of Foreclosure

Bank of America Urged to Agree to Steps Before Fed Hearing on April 28, 2008

One day before the shareholders of America`s biggest bank are set to meet, consumer advocacy organizations from North Carolina and around the country held a 'Real Stakeholders` Meeting' to talk about the nation`s credit and foreclosure crisis and its affect on families.

CRA-NC, the California Reinvestment Coalition (CRC) and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) released a report entitled, 'Higher Standards? What America`s biggest bank owes its customers and Countrywide borrowers,' to delve into the potential affects of Bank of America`s acquisition of Countrywide on various stakeholders such as communities, consumers, taxpayers, bank employees, and shareholders.

The report lists meaningful steps which Bank of America should take in order to accept the responsibility of its impact on their stakeholders and become a model financial institution. The groups called for the bank to make commitments to the steps before the Federal Reserve`s public hearing on the Countrywide deal in Los Angeles on April 28-29, 2008.

According to the report, the commitments Bank of America should make are:

1. Pledge not to import Countrywide`s business model; present a detailed, transparent, and verifiable plan to reform Countrywide`s servicing platform; end abusive practices such as prepayment penalties, pay-option ARMs, and no-documentation or low-documentation loans; and work with an independent organization to evaluate the fairness and effectiveness of the servicing unit on a quarterly basis, and make the results of the quarterly evaluations publicly available.

2. Commit to modifying the terms of mortgage loans for borrowers in a manner that realistically accounts for their ability to repay the loans; to publicly reporting the results of its workout efforts on a quarterly basis; to refinancing all ARMs into long-term fixed rate loans, with the goal of keeping homeowners in their homes; and to providing $10 million to pay for housing counseling services for borrowers.

3. Ensure that critical Countrywide staff who can underwrite loan modifications and other support staff are kept intact in their current offices to deal with the servicing needs of delinquent borrowers; appropriately train staff to meet this challenge; and commit to having trained loan underwriters on staff.

4. Commit to changes in company policies that add much needed consumer protections in credit cards, retail banking, and mortgages; discontinue abusive practices such as risk-based repricing of credit cards, and 'anytime for any reason' credit card interest rate hikes; pledge to use its market power to bring down consumer fees rather than driving them up; end aggressive opposition at the federal level to legislative and regulatory reforms of predatory consumer practices, including the basic consumer protections in the Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights, and meaningful foreclosure prevention measures.

5. Pledge to take significant measures to improve corporate governance policies and practices to adequately protect shareholder interests.

'Now is not the time to endanger the thousands of homeowners on the brink of foreclosure by handing over their mortgage to a bigger bank which has yet to promise to take responsibility for the damage already done by Countrywide,' said Alan Fisher, Executive Director of the California Reinvestment Coalition, 'The bank needs to have a specific plan now which protects consumers and prevent a costly taxpayer bailout.'

'I would like to make very clear that my husband and I are working very diligently to secure the funds we need to save our home,' said Vonda Hopkins, a resident of Greensboro, North Carolina, whose home is up for foreclosure sale next month. 'Home ownership is the American dream. This home was our dream when we made the purchase and we will not allow this situation to taint our dream and keep us from living out our dream in our home. The bank can stop this from happening right now, with my family by making reforms today.'

The stakeholders meeting is the latest in a series of events hosted by SEIU in partnership with consumer advocacy organizations around the country to call for better practices and consumer protections in the banking and credit card industries which run with too little regulation.

ABOUT CRA-NC

CRA-NC is a nonprofit agency whose mission is to promote and protect community wealth. The agency is responsible for over $40 billion in community lending commitments from financial institutions in North Carolina. CRA-NC has emerged as a national voice on the issue of predatory lending and the need for reforms in the subprime lending markets. For more information visit: http://www.cra-nc.org/index.htm.

The California Reinvestment Coalition advocates for the right of low-income communities and communities of color to have fair and equal access to banking and other financial services. CRC has a membership of more than 240 nonprofit organizations and public agencies across the State. For more information visit http://www.calreinvest.org/.

ABOUT SEIU

With 1.9 million members, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is the fastest-growing labor union in North America. Together with consumer advocacy organizations and elected and community leaders around the country, SEIU is leading efforts to hold the nation`s largest banks accountable to working families and our communities.

Source: Service Employees International Union, Washington, D.C.

CONTACT: Peter Skillern of CRA-NC, +1-919-667-4201; or Tanya Aquino of
SEIU, +1-321-960-3802

Web Site: http://www.calreinvest.org/