Bank of America Corp (BAC): Five Things That Could Hobble It

4. The end of quantitative easing
The accidentally released minutes of a recent Federal Reserve policy meeting show a Federal Open Market Committee debating not if, but when, to begin winding down its $85 billion per month program of bond purchases.

These bond purchases have been instrumental in driving the nation’s housing resurgence, and have consequently made a lot of money for the banks because of increased home lending, Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) among them. When that money begins to dry up completely, or in part, all of the big banks are going to take a hit.

Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC) is the nation’s biggest home lender, and would certainly feel the effects of the winding down of QE3. But damaged institution that it is, Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) has much less room to maneuver than Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC) or any of its peers from a revenue and profit perspective.