Brian Putler 
Senior: Vice President 
State Gorerument Relations, Western Region 

May 18, 2018 

The Honorable David Y. lge
Governor, State of Hawaii
Executive Chambers

State Capitol

Honolulu, HI 96813

Dear Governor Ige,

1 am writing on behalf of Bank of America to thank you for your letter of April 18, 2018,
addressed to Catherine Bessant, a copy of which is attached.

We appreciate your interest in this matter and assure you that the bank fulfilled?and
exceeded by many times?the $150 million lending and investment goal through our
community development loans and investments in Hawaii.

You may not be aware that on October 3, 2007, Ben Henderson at the Department of
Hawaiian Homelands sent a letter to the bank confirming our fulfillment of the goal. A copy
of that letter is attached. For reasons that are not clear, advocacy groups disoute the
authority of Mr. Henderson to issue that letter. Regardless of disagreements over Mr.
Henderson?s authority, we have reviewed our investments made in the state with
community groups multiple times over the years.

We have also stated to the community groups our willingness to engage in discussion about
other community development opportunities in Hawaii, but the groups have not been
interested in pursuing those initiatives with us.

916.326.3137 916.798.3688


Bank of America, 0113-1170409
555 Capitol Mall, Suite 490, Sacramento, CA 95314-4503

Bank of America 

 

 

The Honorable David Y. lge
May 18, 2018
Page 2

Finally, we work closely with the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America (NACA)
on its home?buying programs. NACA does extensive counseling and underwriting to help
make homeownership accessible for low and moderate income customers, and we provide
the capital to fulfill mortgages. NACA will begin another campaign in Honolulu June
14 leading up to a six-day mortgage origination event July 5 to 10. program has
been successful in other communities and we trust it will be successful in Hawaii again too.

Sincerely,
Brian Putler
Attachments

cc: Catherine P. Bessant
Andrew D. Plepler

Bank of America "if"