Dec. 4--A former Bank of America Corp. executive will help Wells Fargo & Co. manage the troubled Pick-A-Payment loan portfolio it's acquiring in its planned Wachovia Corp. purchase.

Bob Caruso, now an executive vice president at Lender Processing Services Inc., will work directly with Mike Heid, a co-president of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, according to a Wachovia memo. Caruso will work on a consulting contract, remaining with Lender Processing Services, LPS said today.

Charlotte-based Wachovia, saddled with losses from the Pick-A-Payment portfolio it acquired in 2006 from Golden West Financial Corp., is being sold to Wells Fargo in a deal expected to close at year end. The memo said Wachovia's Distressed Asset Resolution Team, created to handle the portfolio, will move on Jan. 1 to Wells Fargo's home and consumer finance group.

Caruso, who joined LPS from Bank of America in July, will lead all default and loss mitigation for the $122 billion loan book. Wells Fargo has said it plans to run-off the Golden West portfolio, partly by refinancing borrowers into other types of loans. Wells now estimates the portfolio's expected losses at about $36 billion, or about 29 percent.

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