Brian Moynihan might be of Irish descent but, he said, that doesn't always mean he's a fighting Irishman.
In discussing mortgage buybacks, the Bank of America Corp. chief executive said, "There's a point where fighting doesn't have any value." He then made an aside referring to his heritage.
Mortgage buybacks are an issue for which Moynihan once had much stronger words. In a now-infamous statement during B of A's third-quarter earnings call, Moynihan said he would not stand for claimants who bought a Chevy when they wanted a Mercedes.
Since then, Moynihan has been softening his stance.
The bank is focused on "taking risk which is uncertain and unknown and putting it behind us in big chunks, with the rep and warranty issue," he said Wednesday at a Sanford Bernstein conference in New York. "We feel we've proven so far that we can take care of this … in a way that is reasonable."
It's in B of A's best interest to work on a settlement if the claims are reasonable, Moynihan said later.
"If they're not, we'll fight," Moynihan stressed. "If we can put it behind us it's good for us, it's good for shareholders. So we've been after that and we're trying to do that."
Moynihan stressed that the bank is working to take the unknowns out of the equation in many different areas. He said that B of A is diligently working through its foreclosure issues and that there would be no need to raise additional capital in the future — two other big issues that have weighed on shareholders in recent months.
"We don't see any need to raise capital at all," Moynihan said.
Another overhanging concern for investors has been the timing of a dividend raise.
Moynihan reiterated that it was never B of A's intention to raise its dividend until the second half of the year at the earliest. But when B of A's plan to do so was rejected by Federal Reserve in March, it was determined that the bank still had some work to do before it could give more capital back to shareholders.
"We need to keep doing the work we've been on the course of doing," Moynihan said, adding that there are certain systems integrations that had been scheduled to be completed during the first half of the year that need to be finished. The regulators "want to make sure that work's done," he said. "The expense reduction helps, too, that's why we've been doing that."
Moynihan assured shareholders that B of A is in "close contact" with the regulators and that "we've been assured they'll give us credit for what we've done."
When asked if he was surprised at the latest report on housing prices that showed a bigger drop in March then expected, Moynihan said he believes the decline is par for the course and attributed it to many lenders restarting the foreclosure process after delays late last year.
"I don't think house prices go anywhere," Moynihan said. "Nothing we see says they are going anywhere but to bump around."
