So Wall Street finally got a peak that wee hours at Bank of America (NYSE: BAC)’s fourth quarter earnings, and guess what? Bank of America missed, reporting 5 cents earnings per share versus the 18 cents estimate. Frankly, I’m glad BAC missed. Why? considering Bank of America looked at everything on its books, and whether it wasn’t moving, it wrote it down or wrote it off. Bank of America is now the clear leader of the American financial institutions.

Bank of America went into the entire credit crisis and sub-prime mess with the best positioned in-house mortgage portfolio. Bank of America and Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) were nowhere approach the poor position of Citigroup (NYSE: C) or Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER). Wells Fargo

and Bank of America typically kept and serviced most of their issued mortgages. They plus had higher credit requirements from their respective customer base. Of all major banks, these two will exit the storm in the best shape.

When the world comes back to normal, Wells Fargo and Bank of America will own and dominate the mortgage sector. Of course, with the Countrywide Financial (NYSE: CFC) proposed acquisition, Bank of America will have the largest portfolio of mortgage loans — not SIVs or CDOs, which are Citigroup and Merrill Lynch’s persistent problem — by a factor of three.

Continue reading Bank of America: New Financial Leader?

Original post by Georges Yared

college finance auto insurance stocks auto loans banking mortgage insurance refinance law