BofA seeks more jumbo mortgages: report

(Reuters) - Bank of America Corp is seeking to produce more "jumbo" mortgages, which can range from $417,000 in most areas to as much as $729,750, Barbara Desoer, the bank's head of mortgage, home equity and insurance services told Bloomberg in an interview.

"Bank of America has balance-sheet capacity and we've allocated it to jumbos given our presence in some of the states and regions where that's important," Desoer was quoted as saying.

The bank sees an opportunity to issue more of the loans with Merrill Lynch's "mass-affluent" customers, even as it continues to integrate the acquired company, she said.

To keep up with mortgage demand the bank has added roughly 3,000 employees to its origination unit, including about 1,000 new to the company and 500 shifted from its home-equity division, as well temporary workers, she said.

She was also reported as saying that the bank's purchase of Countrywide Financial Corp was paying off.

"Volume is good, application quality is holding up and the acquisition of Countrywide is really paying off for us with the additional capacity," she was quoted as saying.

(Reporting by Ajay Kamalakaran in Bangalore; Editing by Greg Mahlich)