Bank of America “has ‘suspended current commitments’ to Acorn Housing, an affiliated
group, and ‘will not enter into any further agreements with Acorn or
any of its affiliates,’ pending assessments by the bank of the
organization’s operations,” The Wall Street Journal reports.
The article doesn’t say how much BofA money is directly involved. But it does note that
Last year, Acorn Housing was allocated federal funds that could
total as much as about $25 million for counseling of distressed
mortgage borrowers under a program known as National Foreclosure
Mitigation Counseling, created by Congress in late 2007. The share
allotted to Acorn Housing was about 7.5% of the $333 million total.
That made Acorn the fourth-largest recipient, trailing Neighborhood
Assistance Corp. of America, the National Foundation for Credit
Counseling and the Homeownership Preservation FoundationThese funds haven’t all been paid to the organizations. Instead,
they get an unspecified amount of money up front and then bill
NeighborWorks America, a group designated by Congress to manage this
program, for counseling work as it is performed, a NeighborWorks
spokesman said.
Wells Fargo, J.P. Morgan Chase, and Citigroup haven’t followed suit. Yet.