Countrywide takeover will pay off, BofA’s CEO says

Bank of America Chief Executive Ken Lewis defended his takeover of Countrywide Financial Corp., saying Wednesday that the Calabasas lender “kind of went into a shell and didn’t say much about what they were doing right” when the mortgage business hit the skids last year. But Bank of America still plans to dump the Countrywide name early next year in favor of the Bank of America brand, Lewis confirmed. Often cast as having epitomized the lax lending standards that buried millions of Americans in unaffordable loans, Countrywide, the nation’s largest mortgage lender, was on the ropes when Bank of America agreed to buy it six months ago. For the full story visit http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-bofa10-2008jul10,0,3718095.story