Bank of America official optimistic on repayment
A top executive at Bank of America told a Boston audience yesterday the institution would repay the US government in “months, not years’’ the $45 billion it received under the federal bailout program.
Brian Moynihan, a Boston resident who runs Bank of America’s investment banking and money management operations in New York, spoke at a breakfast gathering of members of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce.
With President Obama and the public calling for greater regulation of the financial sector, Moynihan predicted a period of less risk-taking - a “simpler time.’’ In particular, he said, bankers will be more careful about how much leverage - essentially borrowed funds - they would put into investments and business deals because it could amplify losses.
Asked whether bankers would ever forget the lessons of the recent credit crisis, he conceded that, eventually, “It’ll wear out and swing the other way.’’
