Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) CEO Brian Moynihan says he wants his bank to increase corporate and mortgage lending. The bank has spent two years just looking at cutting costs and its capital levels, and he said now is the time to increase lending.
Moynihan made his remarks in an interview with the Financial Times. He said Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) should pass up JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) in mortgage lending over the first half of 2013. The bank was the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s best performer in 2012.
Investors have been concerned about Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC)’s billions of dollars in bad mortgages, many of which were underwritten by Countrywide, which the bank purchased in 2008. Moynihan said the bank is looking for quick resolutions to the lawsuits that are still open.
Bank of America is the first Wall Street bank to exceed new capital requirements for international business, and it did it seven years ahead of the deadline to do so. According to Moynihan, the bank is ready to start returning money to shareholders, although in 2011 the Federal Research vetoed their first attempt to do so. The bank is now working for ways to establish an earnings record that the Fed would be happy to approve.
The fact that Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) is ready to increase their lending is good news for both businesses and would-be home buyers. These last few years have made it very difficult to acquire loans, but if the bank is getting more aggressive, there could be a possibility that loans which would have been denied a year ago will now be approved.