Bank of America Corporation’s (BAC) third quarter 2009 loss came in at 26 cents per share, substantially worse than the Zacks Consensus Estimated loss of 10 cents. This compares unfavorably with earnings of 15 cents in the prior-year quarter. The worse-than-expected results came in due primarily to continued weakness in the U.S. and global economies as well as stress on the consumer, which continues to result in high credit costs. The results for the quarter were negatively impacted by $2.6 billion in pretax mark-to-market and credit valuation adjustments on certain liabilities, including the Merrill Lynch structured notes, and a $402 million pretax charge to pay the U.S. government for termination of its asset guarantee term sheet. However, strengthening reserves, capital position and liquidity were key positives during the quarter.    The results for the quarter exclude total preferred dividends of $1.2 billion. The preferred dividend paid ...

On Wednesday, Wells Fargo (WFC) became the latest large financial institution to announce a reshuffle in its policy towards overdraft fees. The bank will eliminate overdraft fees for Wells and Wachovia customers when they overdraw their accounts by $5 or less. Wells will not charge customers more than four overdraft fees per day. In addition, customers will be able to opt out of overdraft coverage. Henceforth, customers can specify that they don't want their transactions authorized into overdraft if funds aren't available to cover the transaction. Wells Fargo is following the footsteps of other large banks, Bank of America Corporation (BAC) and JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM). While JP Morgan has decided to automatically remove all its customers from the overdraft service, and allow customers who want that protection to opt in; BofA and Wells Fargo will leave it to customers to opt ...

Bank of America Corporation (BAC) will lay off 51 workers by closing its check-processing center in St. Louis. According to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification filed with the Missouri Department of Economic Development, the retrenchment will take place by Oct 2, 2009. As the use of debit cards and online banking has increased significantly in the recent years and customers now write fewer checks, BofA is trying to consolidate its check-processing operations nationwide. BofA is the second-largest bank in the St. Louis area with $7.9 billion in deposits. BofA’s banking and non-banking subsidiaries across the United States and in other international markets provide a diverse range of banking and non-banking financial services and products. We, however, think that Bank of America is in a relatively good shape from a capital perspective. During this delicate period of market stress, the availability of significant private-sector capital ...

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will aggressively pursue a trial against Bank of America Corp. (BAC) for allegedly misleading investors during the acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co. late last year. The SEC accused BofA of failing to disclose to shareholders that it had authorized Merrill to pay up to $5.8 billion in bonuses to employees in 2008 even after it lost $27.6 billion that year.

Last month, the SEC and BofA had reached a settlement on the charges that required the bank to pay a $33 million fine. But US District Judge Jed Rakoff condemned the deal, saying the corporate fine would further unfairly penalize the shareholders instead of the people actually guilty of misleading investors.

Both the SEC and BofA have defended the earlier settlement proposal as appropriate. But after Rakoff's ruling, the SEC weighed its options - to go to trial, drop the

...

In case you have not heard the news, China has announced that it will be instructing its state-owned enterprises to potentially default on their derivatives contracts. As I have written extensively in the past, the derivatives market is a massive time bomb just waiting to go off. China’s latest move may be the match that lights the fuse.

All told, US Commercial banks own $202 trillion in derivatives in notional value. To put that number into perspective, it’s roughly four times the global GDP. And 96% of this exposure sits on five banks’ balance sheets. I’ve shown the below chart before, but it’s worth re-visiting (chart is denominated in TRILLIONS).

Of course, not ALL of the $202 trillion these guys own is “at risk.” As their name implies, derivatives are “derived” from underlying assets (homes, debt, etc). The actual “at risk” money can be far FAR smaller than the “notional” …

[Editor's Note: After more than a year of chaos and controversy, some of the leading U.S. banks saw their stock prices soar during the second quarter. As part of its mid-year forecast series, Money Morning examines the outlook for U.S. banks for the rest of this year. To see earlier stories from our mid-year forecast series, please click here.] By Martin Hutchinson Contributing Editor Money Morning

Can U.S. bank stocks continue their winning streak?

In February, I analyzed the top 12 U.S. banks to determine whether they really needed $1.5 trillion in taxpayer-provided bailout capital. I concluded that only a few of those banks seemed to be in any danger of collapse, and actually recommended several.

Policymakers and the market later came to agree with me: The Standard & Poor’s 500 Financial Index has more than doubled from its March low and several bank stocks have posted triple-digit …

The markets had a good day as all three major indexes were up over 2%, with the Dow up 2.08% to finish at 8472.40.  The NASDAQ and S&P were up 2.08% and 2.14% respectively, closing at 1829.54 and 920.26.  The 10-year saw price climb over a dollar as the yield ended at 3.544%.  Crude oil saw prices rise, settling at $70.23, with August gold also seeing prices head up as the dollar weakens, settling at $939.50. 

American International Group [AIG: 1.46, 0.00 (0.00%)] and the Federal Reserve Board of New York agreed that AIG can repay $25 billion that they owe the New York Reserve through initial public offerings of the two of its international life insurance units.  AIG will put equity from American Life Insurance Co. and American International Assurance Co. into vehicles and receive preferred and common interest in exchange.  AIG will hold the common interest while

...

China Ramps Up Oil Refining; Lowe’s Tops Forecasts; Toshiba Raising $3 Billion in Stock Sale; AIG Fast-Tracking Asian Subsidiary IPO; Obama Sets First Pollution Limits on Cars; Homebuilder Confidence Highest in 8 Months; State Street Sells $1.5 Billion in Stock to Repay TARP Funds; Oil Spikes on Africa Violence, U.S. Refinery Fire

China will increase its annual oil refining volume by 18% over the next two years to meet expected long-term demand. China’s State Council also said that it would boost stockpiles and encourage petro companies to merge operations, Bloomberg reported. Lowe’s Cos. Inc. (NYSE: LOW) reported an analyst-beating quarterly profit and raised its full-year forecast. The No. 2 home improvement retailer cited improving ...

Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) plans to sell assets and issue more common stock after being told by the federal government that it must raise $33.9 billion to adequately guard against “more adverse” economic conditions.

Bank of America was one of 10 banks told by the government to raise more capital following the so-called stress test. The government concluded that BofA faces a potential $136.6 billion in losses from troubled loans and investments in 2009 and 2010. The bank’s $34 billion capital shortfall was more than twice that of Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC), which had the second greatest capital need.

BofA Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Lewis said Thursday that his company will start closing the capital shortfall by raising $17 billion in common equity, both by selling new shares and converting a portion of its privately held

...

Following the release of the government’s “Stress Test” results, 10 of the largest 19 banks will be required to raise additional capital. This additional capital needed by these 10 banks will cushion their existing capital in the event of a further market deterioration. Among the top banks that need to raise additional capital is Bank of America [BAC: 14.17, 0.00 (0.00%)]. Fed officials are forcing BofA to raise more capital to ensure it will have sufficient Tier 1 capital to absorb losses from an adverse scenario.

Fed officials targeted the largest banks and provided them with a scenario in which 2 year loan loss rates increased substantially. From these increased rates, fed officials estimated that another $599 billion could be written down by the largest 19 financial institutions. The hardest hit bank

...