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Bank Of America Rebrands Countrywide

Countrywide Home Loans signs came down and Bank of America Home Loans signs went up at the lender's 215 storefront offices in California over the weekend as the first step in the rebranding of a name that has become became "too toxic to resuscitate," as one analyst puts it.

"It's the end of an era in the country, but times change," says co-founder Angelo R. Mozilo's. More recently, the company has been linked with high-risk loans, Mozilo's huge paydays and FBI investigations and has become a liability for Bank of America, which snatched it up last year as it neared collapse, E. Scott Reckard reports. Countrywide has nearly 1,300 mortgage offices nationwide.

BoA also pledges to serve customers by keeping loans simple and affordable and explaining them clearly -- a response to complaints about past lending practices. "What I hear time and time again in focus groups is that people want no gimmicks, no surprises," says Barbara Desoer, president of Bank of America's mortgage and insurance unit.

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