Bank of America to Acquire Reverse Mortgage Business of Seattle Mortgage Company

CHARLOTTE, N.C., April 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Bank of America today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the reverse mortgage business of Seattle Mortgage Company, an indirect subsidiary of Seattle Financial Group, Inc., one of the leaders in providing financial solutions for seniors. Bank of America is one of the country's leading mortgage lenders, and has recently been piloting innovative reverse mortgage products with customers in Arizona since November. Seattle Mortgage markets its reverse mortgages under its division name, Reverse Mortgage of America.

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"Seattle Mortgage has been a pioneer in developing mortgage products and services that address the senior population's growing need for greater financial liquidity," said Floyd Robinson, president of Bank of America Consumer Real Estate. "This is in line with Bank of America's desire to grow its consumer real estate business by utilizing our significant advantages in size and scale."

Financial details of the transaction were not announced. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2007, pending regulatory approval. David Rupp, Bank of America Home Equity executive, will oversee the integrated operation.

"We will leverage Seattle Mortgage's industry expertise with Bank of America's leading distribution channels to achieve market leadership in this growing area of the financial services marketplace," Rupp said.

Seattle Mortgage entered the reverse mortgage industry in 1995. It has a loan portfolio of 40,000 reverse mortgages, totaling over $4 billion in outstanding balances. Approximately 400 Seattle Mortgage associates will join Bank of America, including a retail sales force of more than 200 sales associates in 25 states and the District of Columbia. John Nixon, executive vice president and COO of Reverse Mortgage of America, a division of Seattle Mortgage Company, and Charlie Jones, vice president of Loan Servicing, will join Bank of America and report to David Rupp.

Bank of America achieved market leadership as the nation's No. 1 home equity lender in 2006 and remains the market leader today with more than $92 billion in loans and lines of credit.

UBS Investment Bank acted as exclusive financial advisor to Seattle Mortgage Company in this transaction.

Bank of America is one of the world's largest financial institutions, serving individual consumers, small and middle market businesses and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial and risk-management products and services. The company provides unmatched convenience in the United States, serving more than 56 million consumer and small business relationships with more than 5,700 retail banking offices, more than 17,000 ATMs and award-winning online banking with nearly 22 million active users. Bank of America is the No. 1 overall Small Business Administration (SBA) lender in the United States and the No. 1 SBA lender to minority-owned small businesses. The company serves clients in 175 countries and has relationships with 98 percent of the U.S. Fortune 500 companies and 80 percent of the Fortune Global 500. Bank of America Corporation stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.