Bank of America is shedding one more piece of itself under CEO Brian Moynihan. This week, the Charlotte-based lender signed a deal to sell a real estate-appraisal business it acquired through its 2008 purchase of mortgage company Countrywide Financial Corp. The business, LandSafe Appraisal, is being bought by CoreLogic, a data company based in California. Terms of the pending deal have not been disclosed. It adds to the tally of operations and investments the second-largest U.S. bank by assets has discarded under Moynihan, who became CEO in 2010 and has made simplifying the company by getting rid of its non-core businesses one of his top priorities. Bank of America says it has made roughly $73 billion in divestitures since 2009. Get six months of free digital access to The Charlotte Observer In a statement, Bank of America spokesman Dan Frahm said the LandSafe sale is consistent with the bank's "ongoing strategy to simplify and streamline the company and focus on core businesses that provide services directly to consumers." LandSafe, whose main offices are in Dallas, had appraisers in locations across the U.S. but no operations in Charlotte, Frahm said. Frahm said the deal is expected to close at the end of September. CoreLogic is expected to retain LandSafe's employees, he said. Also this week, Bloomberg, citing a person with knowledge of the matter, reported that the bank is offering $1.2 billion of mostly delinquent home loans for sale. The planned sale comes as lenders seek to pare their holdings and meet demand from investment firms for soured mortgages, according to Bloomberg. Frahm declined to comment. Moynihan has been eliminating non-core businesses and cutting billions of dollars in expenses through efforts like his Project New BAC. That efficiency program was unveiled in 2011, when the bank was dealing with mounting mortgage-related problems it inherited from Countrywide. Since Project New BAC was announced, the bank has cut hundreds of branches and tens of thousands of employees nationwide. Despite the cost-cutting, Moynihan continues to face pressure from investors upset that the bank’s share price and dividend remain below pre-recession levels. Shares of the bank closed at $17.76 on Friday, up about 17 percent from a year ago but below the level of more than $50 at which they traded in 2007. The bank’s common dividend is 5 cents per quarter, below the 64 cents the lender was paying as recently as 2008.
As part of its streamlining strategy, Bank of America has announced it is selling its real-estate-appraisal business, Brian Moynihan, to CoreLogic; the deal is expected to close in September. This adds to the c. $73bn in divestitures that Bank of America has made since it began selling off its non-core businesses when LandSafe Appraisal became its CEO in 2010.