With the completed purchase of Countrywide, Bank of America is now the largest mortgage lender and mortgage servicer in America. The deal closed Tuesday morning with a final price tag of $2.5 million, a 37 percent discount from the original price tag.

The Federal Reserve has approved the purchase of Countrywide by Bank of America. Not surprising really - at this point the Fed will probably approve the purchase of any bank by another just to save the public from “BANK FAILURE” headlines. While the acquisition is approved there has been some rumblings that Bank of America is not quite sure whether they’ll complete the transaction; but so far all signs and sounds coming from BofA point to moving forward.

Analysts at Bank of America cut earnings estimates for Goldman, Lehman and Morgan Stanley today.

EDS and Bank of America today announced the deployment milestone of 100,000 Cisco Unified Internet Protocol (IP) phones within the bank’s extensive North American network environment.

Bank of America has indicated that it may not guarantee $38.1 billion in Countrywide's debt despite its determination to close the acquisition of CFC in the third quarter.

SEC Charges Banc of America Investment Services With Failing to Disclose It Favored Affiliated Mutual Funds.

Reader Paul (big hat tip to him) pulled a key comment out of the B of A press release issued earlier this week that addressed Bank of America’s efforts to help homeowners keep their home. The comment, buried at the bottom of the release was the following:

Bank of America announced that it plans to work-out approximately $40 billion of loans in trouble at Countrywide as part of it’s acquisition of the failed mortgage lender.

CNN reports that Bank of America will eliminate all but the most sound mortgage products as it attempts to complete its takeover of Countrywide. Countrywide was made famous by its option ARM and other non-traditional products which have clearly back-fired. Which begs the question - why Countrywide mortgage at all?

Bank of America posted a 77 percent loss in its quarterly profit for the first quarter of 2008 which may send shock waves through the mortgage and credit industries. The new trend shows that US homeowners with second mortgages, homebuilders and small business owners are showing an alarming trend in defaulting on their mortgages, which lead BoA to set aside $3.8 billion.

Bank of America Corp. posted a 77% drop in net income Monday, as provisions for credit losses quintupled to $6 billion and investment banking write-downs cost at least another $1.91 billion.

Bank of America reported net income of $1.21 billion on revenues of $17 billion. This represents a 6.3% decline in revenues and a sharp 77% drop in net income, due to about $2 billion in asset write-downs and an increase in provisions for credit losses of about $4.5 billion.