Bank of America Wants to Be the Good Guy in This Crisis
It promises no layoffs and higher pay while allowing consumers to defer payments. That’ll get costly.
Bank of America is vowing to do right by consumers.
Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg
Big banks are the good guys now.
That, in a nutshell, was the message that Bank of America Corp. sought to convey to Wall Street and Main Street on Wednesday in its first-quarter earnings. It added 2,000 employees in March and pledged no job cuts this year related to the coronavirus pandemic, even after it increased its minimum hourly rate of pay in the U.S. to $20, as Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan had previously announced. About 16% of small-business accounts deferred payments on their loans and credit lines, representing almost one-third of the bank’s small-business balances. Individuals and families can request to defer payments on credit cards, auto loans and mortgages, all without any negative credit-bureau reporting for those who were previously up-to-date.