Bank of America’s refusal to commit to detailed community reinvestment goals following its planned acquisition of LaSalle Bank is in contrast to how it acted in Boston in 2004 when it acquired Fleet Boston Bank.

On January 14, 2005 Bank of America and a variety of community groups testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Banking Committee that the Bank would:

• Commit to maintain the pre-merger employment level in New England at 17,900 employees

• Provide 3,000 “soft second” loans to lower income buyers in Massachusetts over the next ten years. (A soft second loan forgives the borrower a portion of the second loan for each year the borrower stays in the home thus enabling more lower-income families to become home-owners)

• Convert a portion of its loan commitment to the Massachusetts Housing Partnership to an $18 million grant

• Commit to targeting $100 billion of the ten year $750 billion national community development goal to New England

• Provide $406 million in loan financing to the Massachusetts Housing Partnership

• Maintain a $20 million loan pool with the Massachusetts Housing Investment Corporation
  

• Grant Children’s Hospital and City Year $1 million each and grant $200,000 each to Stride and to the Lawrence Community Works program

All of these commitments are recorded in the Congressional Record, Testimony to the U.S. House Financial Services Committee, January 14^th 2005.

Woodstock President Malcolm Bush commented, “We are deeply dismayed that Bank of America has refused to make community reinvestment commitments to Chicago despite the fact that it made such commitments to Boston in similar circumstances. This lack of engagement with Chicago suggests that the $1.2 trillion bank has lost the capacity to take seriously the well-being of the local communities from which it gains its profits.”

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