Bank of America is Worried: Buys Embarassing Web Sites

Bank of America executives seem to be very worried. According to the New York Times, the bank bought web addresses that "could prove embarrassing to the company or its top executives in the event of a large-scale public assault, but a spokesman for the bank said the move was unrelated to any possible leak".

Of course the move will be futile as the number of address and names is virtually infinite.

Today they also announced that they are settling with Freddie and Fannie for just over $2B, a move that is seen as a preventive measure. BAC stock has had a disastrous performance in the last year.

On Dec. 18, BAC said it would join MasterCard and PayPal in stopping the processing of payments intended for WikiLeaks.

"The bank’s investigative team is trying to reconstruct the handover of materials to public agencies for a variety of inquiries, in pursuit of previously undisclosed documents that could embarrass the company, bank officials said.

In addition to the Merrill documents, the team is reviewing material on Bank of America’s disastrous acquisition in 2008 of Countrywide Financial, the subprime mortgage specialist, the officials said. The criticism of Bank of America’s foreclosure procedures centers mostly on loans it acquired in the Countrywide deal, and one possibility is that the documents could show unscrupulous or fraudulent lending practices by Countrywide.

If that is the case, it would not only reignite political pressure on Bank of America and other top mortgage servicers, but it could also strengthen the case of investors pressuring the big banks to buy back tens of billions in soured mortgages.

“If something happens, we want to be ready,” one bank official said. “You want to know what your options are before it comes out, rather than have to decide on the spot.” Bank of America’s efforts are complicated by the fact that it has made several huge acquisitions in recent years, and those once-independent companies had different computer systems and security procedures".


What is interesting is Mr. Assange has never said that the embarassing data is about Bank of America, yet they are so worried.