Bank of America asked its head of business banking and Los Angeles market president, Raul Anaya, to shift his focus to overseeing the bank’s wildfire response and rebuild efforts in February.

Part of this has involved putting together a team of bankers across every line of business to strategize both short-term and long-term plans.

“I call this the L.A. Rebuild Council at Bank of America, which is there to help evaluate how we can help our three stakeholders: our clients, our employees and the community,” Anaya said.

Right after the fires hit, BofA launched its Client Assistance Program where affected clients are introduced to a designated banker to assist with big decisions such as how to invest their insurance proceeds, whether to do loan payment forbearance or how to navigate rebuilding.

All of Bank of America’s impacted clients were offered a 90-day payment forbearance but Anaya said after that period is up, clients can opt into subsequent 90-day forbearance periods if necessary for up to a year.

Another form of assistance Anaya is looking into has to do with reconstruction loans.

“We’re innovating other new products potentially (including) a new construction loan to help clients who may have had a low interest rate that they incurred when rates were very low,” he said. “We’re thinking of ways we preserve that rate and help them rebuild with that low rate.”

Short-term recovery efforts

Some short-term milestones in recovery efforts so far have been reuniting people with items in safety deposit boxes stored in branches that burned and opening temporary banking facilities: a mobile financial center in Altadena and a mobile ATM in the Pacific Palisades.

Anaya’s efforts also involve collaborating with the local officials. For example, per request of Mayor Karen Bass, Anaya assembled a team of 12 “very senior leaders” in the banking landscape in Southern California from a variety of financial institutions to act as a sounding board for the city’s recovery, along with a group of local asset managers including executives from TCW Group, Capital Group and Oaktree Capital – all based in downtown.

“When you think about what the rebuild of L.A. is going to entail, it’s going to entail a public-private partnership,” Anaya said. “It’s going to entail tremendous amounts of capital to help rebuild communities, improve the infrastructure and rebuild the small business ecosystem.”