Nov
13
Barbara Desoer, Bank of America’s mortgage chief and potential successor to CEO Ken Lewis, talks about cleaning up the Countrywide mess, credit card losses and more.
(Fortune Magazine) — Talk about being where the action is: Ground zero for today’s financial crisis is the business of home mortgages, and Bank of America’s Barbara Desoer oversees the biggest collection held by any financial institution in the U.S.
Many of them came to the bank with Countrywide Financial, the nation’s largest originator of mortgages and a major subprime lender, which Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) rescued from near collapse earlier this year by acquiring it for $4 billion.
Desoer’s new assignment further broadens her experience – a valuable move for someone widely regarded as a potential successor to CEO Ken Lewis.
She joined the company in 1977 and has held a notably wide range of jobs, overseeing technology, credit cards, deposit accounts, quality, productivity, marketing, and other areas. Such diverse experience is important in a mammoth institution that, besides being No. 1 in mortgages, has relationships with half the households in America and, after its pending acquisition of Merrill Lynch (MER, Fortune 500), will be the country’s top broker.
In her new role, Desoer, 56, recently moved from headquarters in Charlotte to Southern California, where Countrywide is based. She sat down recently with Fortune’s Geoff Colvin to talk about the state of the consumer, when the housing market will bottom, how long the recession will last, and much else.
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