With Bank of America promising $750 billion for community development efforts, Boston's self-styled "bank terrorist," Bruce Marks, will be first in line for a payout.
Marks plans to announce on Monday that his Neighborhood Assistance Corp. of America, a Boston-based nonprofit group that lends to thousands of low- and moderate-income homeowners, will receive an undisclosed sum from Bank of America. The bank's chief executive, Kenneth D. Lewis, is expected to make an appearance at an afternoon news conference in Jamaica Plain.
Bank of America plans to merge with FleetBoston Financial Corp., and Lewis will be in town to testify at hearings next week at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
The pending Marks announcement, as well as Bank of America's $750 billion pledge, has generated controversy in housing circles. Critics of the Fleet merger, including US Representative Barney Frank, Democrat of Newton, have said the pledge is too vague and contains no provisions to aid Massachusetts.
Marks's high-profile style wins him both admirers and detractors. He is known for his loyal picketers in yellow T-shirts who disrupt shareholder meetings, his class-action lawsuit threats, and other tactics that have persuaded banks to give his organization more than $6 billion over the last decade.
Though first formed as a trust fund for hotel workers, Neighborhood Assistance Corp. has grown to be among the nation's largest affordable housing trusts. It gives low- and moderate-income buyers reduced interest rates, with no money down and no closing costs.
While most banks require borrowers to meet a strict set of credit tests, Marks's organization accepts applicants with little credit history.
Bank of America promised the organization $3 billion in 1999, allowing Marks to make 30,000 mortgages in 17 states. Fleet pledged $200 million in 2002. Citigroup recently announced that it would also give Marks's organization $3 billion for loans.
It was not clear whether Marks's Monday announcement would be an extension of his deal with Bank of America, or whether the bank would give him an entirely new deal.
But with federal approval of the Fleet merger still pending, a few have questioned Marks's eagerness to sign deals with the banks he once criticized, saying that the greater good might get lost in individual payouts.
"He has ruffled a lot of feathers," said Tom Callahan, executive director of the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance. "One day he could say a bank could be the worst bank in America. Then two days after he signs an agreement with them, they could be the best bank in America."
Marks, Bank of America, and Fleet all declined to address questions about Monday's scheduled meeting. But in recent weeks, Marks has been lavishing praise on Bank of America, even as other activists have vocally criticized the proposed megabank.
"I think this is tremendous," he said yesterday of Bank of America's $750 billion pledge. "It's of significance, and it's real because of their track record. This is an institution that when they say they're going to get it done, they do."
In a sign that community opposition to the bank merger may be beginning to thaw, Frank met with Fleet and Bank of America executives yesterday and said he came away convinced that the Northeast would get more money than its original $100 billion allocation. Frank said he at first thought the Marks announcement might be part of an effort to mute activists' opposition to the merger, but he said he has now decided that the banks will work with all community groups.
"Some of what they said was very encouraging, and they gave us some positive answers," he said. "I am feeling somewhat better." Sasha Talcott can be reached at
stalcott@globe.com.
