Belmont Shore Resident's Open Letter to Her Bank

Mr. Brian Moynihan, CEO

Bank of America 100 N. Tryon Street Charlotte, NC 28255

Dear Mr. Moynihan,
I am writing to encourage Bank of America to thank the American people for the bail-out by doing the right thing for distressed mortgage owners. Please STOP FORECLOSURES. RESCIND FORECLOSURES. DO LOAN MODIFICATIONS. REFINANCE LOANS.

Bank of America and other bank foreclosures around the country have ruined families, neighborhoods, whole towns. If the banks had been willing to modify loans, maybe meet in the middle between loan amounts and current appraisals, everyone would share in the losses, but we would all gain. People would be in their homes. The long term income potential would be so much better for the banks than foreclosures and empty neighborhoods with houses falling to ruin.

I am particularly distressed with Bank of America's nasty behavior because I have had two mortgage loans with you in 2002 and 2007. My son and I were treated very well by B of A employees in Long Beach and San Diego. I have also banked with my local B of A branch since way before it was B of A, since 1968. Everyone there has always been efficient and personable. I appreciate the locations with a branch two blocks from my home and B of A's recognition around the world. And, I want the local branch folks to have their jobs.

But I can not stay with a bank whose policies are harming so many people unnecessarily. In the last year, I tried to help a friend refinance his home. He has paid over half the mortgage since he obtained a 15-year mortgage from Countrywide. Now he just wants to refinance to a 30-year mortgage because his electrician business is erratic in this economy. He has been told both that his income is too high to qualify and that his income is too low to qualify--in the same month.

He had a three-month stretch when he could not pay his mortgage; and B of A was threatening foreclosure. He has now caught up because work has come in. If B of A had given him the 30-year mortgage to begin with, he would never have been behind. Now, because BofA did not serve him well, he has a bad credit record; and it will be harder to refinance. These rejections are rigid stupidity. You should not treat a customer who has already paid hundreds of thousands of dollars on his mortgage this way.

I heard a rousing speech by Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur of Ohio months ago calling foreclosures fraudulent, because so many of the notes are lost in multiple derivatives. She called on people to defy foreclosures and continue to occupy their homes. The inability to pay mortgages from loss of jobs is largely caused by the sub-prime mortgages and the derivatives that B of A and other Wall Street banks perpetrated on the world economy. Those of us at Occupy Long Beach also call for defiance of foreclosures.

It is time Bank of America became an honorable part of the community again, instead of a thug and criminal. STOP FORECLOSURES. RESCIND FORECLOSURES. DO LOAN MODIFICATIONS. REFINANCE LOANS. NOW!

Sincerely,
Karen S. Harper

Occupy Long Beach