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NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Morgan Stanley (MS) shares have had a rough 2012, underperforming those of major competitors by so large a margin that the bank is now lagging even perennial post-crisis losers Citigroup(C) and Bank of America(BAC) according to certain metrics. Morgan Stanley shares have risen just 4.69% through Tuesday, well behind Citigroup, the next-worst performer among the largest six U.S. banks with gains of more than 19% so far in 2012. Bank of America, still the top performer in 2012 despite having lost more than 15% in the past month, has seen its shares rise more than 40%...

An Arizona-based firearms company says it is being treated unfairly by Bank of America for the type of business it does, a claim the bank denies. Kelly McMillian, operations director of the McMillian companies – which makes rifles, ammunition, gunstocks and related firearms equipment – said a bank vice president explained at a meeting last week that he no longer wanted McMillan's business because the companies manufacture firearms. “This has nothing to do with our financial position,” McMillian said Friday. “He said the bank needed to assess the risk of doing business with a firearms manufacturer.” McMillian said he was...

Take a look at what happens with BofA stock starting with April 19th. The power of the Internet!

[UPDATE: In an email late this evening, Ryan McMillan has confirmed the validity of this story.] When the Bank of America was founded back in 1904, no one ever thought that it would one day truly be the Bank of America. As in (partially) government owned. Just like Government Motors, Chrysler, the entire student loan industry and more, the federal government’s insatiable grasping tentacles are woven throughout one of the world’s largest commercial bank and brokerage operations. And as has always been true, if you take the king’s shilling, you’re damned well going to do his bidding. The folks...

The whole bizarre incident started, as usual, in front of the Caffe Mediterraneum—center of the universe, where a tall man who resembles Jay Leno had attracted a crowd. Saying, "never trust a man in white shoes," he carried on like a Southern Baptist preacher, a white-suited version of Johnny Cash, as a Berkeley Poet Laureate, Julia Vinograd, later symbolized him for her next poem. For the past forty years Berkeley has hosted scores of entertaining street performers, such as Moon Man (selling lots on the moon), Polka Dot Man, Ricky Starr, Stoney Burke, Bubble Lady, the Nude Duo, Naked Man,...

"You can meet capital requirements by either raising capital or shrinking risk weighted assets," said Wiant. "Nobody wants to raise capital at these prices." That could be especially true now that the Federal Reserve said late Tuesday that BofA, along with five other large U.S. banks, will need to give the Fed loss estimates early next year that accounts for a "hypothetical global market shock."

Bloomberg reports that Bank of America (BAC) has shifted about $22 trillion worth of derivative obligations from Merrill Lynch and the BAC holding company to the FDIC insured retail deposit division. Along with this information came the revelation that the FDIC insured unit was already stuffed with $53 trillion worth of these potentially toxic obligations, making a total of $75 trillion.

Most people have no idea that Wall Street has become a gigantic financial casino.  The big Wall Street banks are making tens of billions of dollars a year in the derivatives market, and nobody in the financial community wants the party to end.  The word "derivatives" sounds complicated and technical, but understanding them is really not that hard.  A derivative is essentially a fancy way of saying that a bet has been made.  Originally, these bets were designed to hedge risk, but today the derivatives market has mushroomed into a mountain of speculation unlike anything the world has ever...

A plan by beleaguered Bank of America to foist trillions of dollars of funky Merrill Lynch derivatives onto its depositors is raising eyebrows on Wall Street. The rarely used move will likely save the bank millions of dollars in collateral but could put depositors’ cash behind the eight ball. The move also brought to light fissures between the nation’s top banking regulators, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Federal Reserve, in the wake of new regulations meant to curb the free-wheeling habits that fostered the worst crisis in a generation back in 2008. At issue is BofA’s decision to...

LOS ANGELES, Calif. (KTLA) -- Police converged on a crowd of protesters outside a downtown Bank of America branch. The participants in the protest organized by the Refund California campaign marched into the bank and tried to cash a check for $673 billion. It was an over-sized check made out to the "people of California," LAPD Lt. Paul Vernon said.

NEW YORK -- Bank of America still isn't explaining why online banking may be slow for some of its customers for a sixth day in a row. A message on the bank's home page Wednesday said most of the site was working normally, but that customers may experience "occasional delays." A spokeswoman for Bank of America Corp., Tara Burke, says the company doesn't disclose the causes for website problems and noted that online banking was now available. She declined to say how many customers may still be experiencing slowness signing in.

more: http://www.SHTFplan.com/ From what we can gather, according to eye witness testimony, St. Louis PD has barricaded the Bank of America building and is refusing customer access to deposits. Eye witness account: ‘They would not let me get past that barricade, where those three guys are. I talked to the liutenant of the St. Louis Police Department – and he said they [customers?] don’t have a legal right – but he was going to try to work out something, a symbolic gesture where eight people to pull out their money, I being one of them.’ He came back later and...

Economic indicators are falling. The Fed issued a gloomy report on the future of the economy, saying that the so-called recovery may be “faltering.� Greece has only enough cash to make payroll for a few weeks before it defaults and flattens the European banking system. The only thing missing from a collapse is a good, old-fashioned bank run.Enter Dick Durbin (h/t Ryan K):video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player Holding up a plastic debit card on the Senate floor this afternoon, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., had some advice for Bank of America customers angry about the new $5 monthly fee: leave.“Bank of...

On Sat., Oct. 1, new regulations from the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul go into effect on debit cards. Specifically, they impose price controls on “interchange fees,” the fees that banks and credit unions charge to retailers on debit card transactions. The average interchange fee is about 44 cents. The new rules limit the fees to 21 to 24 cents. “The costs of processing debit card transactions doesn’t go away because you limit the price,” said John Berlau, director of the Center for Investors and Entrepreneurs at the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute. “That shifts the costs to consumers.”

Moody's cuts long term ratings of Bank of America two notches, Wells Fargo one notch and affirms Citigroup's--Firm cuts short-term rating of Citigroup--Both Bank of America, Citigroup disagree with their respective cutsMoody's Investors Service downgraded Bank of America Corp.'s (BAC) and Wells Fargo & Co.'s (WFC) long-term ratings and the short-term ratings of Citigroup Inc. (C), finishing a more than three-month review by saying it believes the U.S. government is less likely to support the banks if needed. Shares in Bank of America, which received the deepest cut, fell 3.2% to $6.68 in recent trading, while Citigroup's were down 0.3%...

Just out... Bank of America has had its long-term senior debt cut to BAA1 by Moody's. The stock is off about 3%. It had been just barely down right before the news hit the wires. Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/bank-of-america-just-got-downgraded-by-moodys-2011-9#ixzz1Ybk25QPB

While Obama and Buffet are working on finding new ways to fleece middle class America of more of our money to finance the salaries of the new storm troopers, the SEIU, Teamsters and Teacher’s unions and the various ACORN spawned organizations, the two are simultaneously prosecuting an all out war on the private sector. To hear the old kook tell it the idea came to him while he was playing in the bathtub. Those of us who no longer believe in the tooth fairy prefer to to dig a little and find out just exactly how did this seemingly Archimedian...

Bank of America Corp officials have discussed slashing roughly 40,000 jobs during the first wave of a restructuring, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the plans. The number of job cuts are not final and could change. The restructuring aims to reduce the bank's workforce over a period of years, the Journal said. The newspaper said BofA executives met Thursday in Charlotte and will gather again Friday to make final decisions on the reductions, putting the finishing touches on five months of work.

Bank of America will close up to 600 branches as part of its reorganization and cost-cutting moves, according to multiple reports this morning. Published and broadcast reports say Bank of America will split into separate consumer and commercial units, and that will lead to the branch closings. Charlotte's NewsChannel 36 says analysts believe the decision to split into two units and close the branches is a signal that Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan plans broader and deeper layoffs than those announced earlier this week.

Warren Buffett has made a career out of casting himself as a common man -- a folksy octogenarian from Omaha who also is the richest man on earth. The billionaire everyman never misses an opportunity to sow his optimistic seeds about stock ownership and America’s future, while professing his profound desire to pay more taxes. Yet when it comes to investing his own billions, this common man has little time for common stocks, but plenty of time for special deals that save him taxes and almost always put him ahead of mere mortal shareholders. Such was the case this past...

God Almighty. I am having a really, really hard time with this. The Medal of Freedom The Presidential Medal of Freedom is an award bestowed by the President of the United States and is—along with the comparable Congressional Gold Medal bestowed by an act of U.S. Congress—the highest civilian award in the United States. It recognizes those individuals who have made "an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors."[3] The award is not limited to U.S. citizens and, while it is a civilian award,...

AUGUST 19, 2011 Bank of America Set to Slice Jobs Reductions Total 3,500 in Current Quarter; Many More Seen BY DAN FITZPATRICK Bank of America Corp. is cutting 3,500 jobs in the current quarter and working on a broader restructuring that could eliminate thousands of additional positions, people familiar with the situation said. The 3,500 positions are spread across the nation's largest bank by assets, including investment banking and trading, and the cuts are expected to be completed by the end of September. Some employees already have been notified. Thousands of additional reductions are expected as part of an aggressive...

Aug 12 (Reuters) - Bank of America Chief Executive Brian Moynihan met privately this week with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve governor Daniel Tarullo amid the campaign to calm investors and employees about the bank's share price fall, the Wall Street Journal reported. The separate meetings took place on Wednesday in Washington, the WSJ said, citing people familiar with the situation. The intent of the meetings with the two top federal officials was for Moynihan to discuss issues related to housing, consumer spending and the U.S. economy, two people familiar with the meetings told the Journal.

Taxpayers may not realize it, but they just bailed out Bank of America again, this time to the tune of more than a half billion dollars.... The feds have just used Fannie Mae, which is controlled by the U.S. government, to infuse BofA with $500 million and ease one of the bank's biggest headaches.... Another thing needs to become clear: where did Fannie Mae get the money to do BofA the favor of buying these rights? Fannie Mae just asked for another bailout of its own, seeking a new $5.1 billion infusion last week.

With Bank of America investors finally realizing it is game over for the company as a going concern, at this point there are just two options for Brian Moynihan: - the spin off of CFC as a bad bank, backstopped by the Fed, or - Chapter 11, which for a bank is essentially liquidation (and with CDS trading up 50 bps to 260 a bankruptcy seems increasingly inevitable). It also means that another TARP is on the way. And once America realizes that another several trillion have to be put into its insolvent banking sector, it will get quite violent....

The race to the bottom for first-quarter GDP projections has a new leader: Bank of America Merrill Lynch. With a succession of mild unemployment drops unable to ease concerns about the larger slow-growth story for the US economy, BofAML now sees the quarter’s growth prospects at just 1.5 percent. The firm’s forecast, in a research note Monday from economist Ethan S. Harris, makes JPMorgan Chase’s [JPM 46.58 0.24 (+0.52%) ] outlook of 2.5 percent seem downright rosy and jibes with a recent warning from Capital Economics that the economy is at a crawl and unlikely to do better than 2...

Angelo Mozilo The son of a butcher, Mozilo co-founded Countrywide in 1969 and built it into the largest mortgage lender in the U.S. Countrywide wasn't the first to offer exotic mortgages to borrowers with a questionable ability to repay them. In its all-out embrace of such sales, however, it did legitimize the notion that practically any adult could handle a big fat mortgage. In the wake of the housing bust, which toppled Countrywide and IndyMac Bank (another company Mozilo started), the executive's lavish pay package was criticized by many, including Congress. Mozilo left Countrywide last summer after its rescue-sale to...

Banks, in an attempt to wring more revenue out of customer accounts, are conjuring up new ways to raise fees on basic products like debit cards, cash machines and checking accounts. As regulation curtailing the financial institutions from levying certain charges on consumers has mounted over the past year, banks have had to dream up new fees to replace those now trimmed by laws. Banks are considering additional fees on credit cards and checking accounts. But they also are looking at new ways to make money on cash machines and especially debit cards as regulators pinch the cards' conventional revenue...

The next big Wikileaks doc drop is supposed to happen early this year. It's supposed to "bring down a bank or two." And that bank's supposed to be Bank of America. A 3% drop in BofA's share price after everyone more or less decided that the bank in question is Brian Moynihan's was the catalyst for a team of executives taking action, according to the New York Times. We already know that one of their methods was to buy up abusive domain names like brianmoynihansucks.com, and that they set up a so-called "SWAT team" to prepare their defenses. And this...

Charlie Gasparino told Shep Smith today that Bank of America has set up a "legal swat team" in case the next big WikiLeak is directed at them. The official line thus far is that they've had "no indication" they're being targeted, however Gasparino says he's spoken to a person who claims to have seen some of the bank-related documents and says that while they couldn't make out how damaging the documents were they "clearly pointed to Bank of America." The big fear inside Bank of America, says Gasparino, is that the documents will lead back to (BofA-owned) Countrywide Financial, and...

U.S. Mortgagegate Scandal Puts Taxpayers into the Title-Insurance Business Housing-Market / US Housing Oct 29, 2010 - 05:48 AM By: Money_Morning Shah Gilani writes: U.S. taxpayers already own pieces of such problem-plagued companies as General Motors Corp., Chrysler LLC, American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG), Fannie Mae (OTC: FNMA) and Freddie Mac (OTC: FMCC). Now the increasingly problematic "Mortgagegate" saga could land American taxpayers in the trouble-ridden title-insurance business. On Oct. 8, Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) indemnified Fidelity National Financial Inc. (NYSE: FNF) against any losses that Fidelity might sustain in litigation over title insurance it writes on...

Bank Of America Getting Crushed In Trading That's Scarily Reminiscent Of Pre-Crisis Days Joe Weisenthal Oct. 25, 2010, 12:39 PM And there goes Bank of America again. Both it and JPMorgan are getting crushed right now, as concern about foreclosures and mortgage putbacks continue to weigh on the megabanks. There's something about Bank of America's action that's particularly nausea-inducing. It's the relentless selling -- all headlines not withstanding -- that suggest the market knows something or thinks something that nobody can voice about how bad this will get. Some comments from Sheila Bair -- via ZeroHedge -- about how the...

Do you have an account with Bank of America? If you do, I would strongly urge you to check it carefully. About 90 minutes ago I was out and about taking care of some personal business, and while I was out and about, I talked to some people who advised me that something odd is happening with their BofA accounts. One woman was so pissed at what happened, she closed her account at BofA and moved to another bank. Seems that someone printed out a "check" and cashed it at BofA. Only problem was, the last 4 digits of the...

Live now. BofA stopping all foreclosures, due to inability to sort out faulty documents, laws suits over documents, etc.

Actually, they're getting tough in a lot of places. They proved very tough for Hamas operatives in the Eastern Mediterranean last weekend. They were tough in poor Balto as well, with seven people shot to death. (Baltimore should be one of the jewels of the East Coast, but of course, it's no such thing. I wonder who's been running the place the last century.) It was nearly as tough in Chicago, with twelve shot and three dead. But when has there ever been good news from the Windy City? But none of these, however bad they may be, have the...

Note: The following text is a quote: Hassan Nemazee Pleads Guilty in Manhattan Federal Court to $292 Million Bank Fraud PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that HASSAN NEMAZEE pleaded guilty today to charges of defrauding Bank of America, N.A. ("BofA"), Citibank, N.A. ("Citibank"), HSBC Bank USA, N.A. ("HSBC"), and a longtime friend and business associate of a total of more than $290 million in loan proceeds. NEMAZEE entered his guilty plea before United States District Judge SIDNEY H. STEIN in Manhattan federal court. According to the superseding Information, filed today, to...

(03-09) 21:21 PST NEW YORK, (AP) -- Bank of America customers will soon be unable to spend more than they have in the accounts linked to their debit cards. It's a step that may become a common move ahead of new regulations limiting overdraft fees. Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/03/09/financial/f190007S63.DTL&tsp=1#ixzz0hkprqVVM

SPRING HILL — Charlie and Maria Cardoso are among the millions of Americans who have experienced the misery and embarrassment that come with home foreclosure. Just one problem: The Massachusetts couple paid for their future retirement home in Spring Hill with cash in 2005, five years before agents for Bank of America seized the house, removed belongings and changed the locks on the doors, according to a lawsuit the couple have filed in federal court. Early last month, Charlie Cardoso had to drive to Florida to get his home back, the complaint filed in Massachusetts on Jan. 20 states. The...

Andrew Cuomo sues the bank for following Treasury orders. The bank bailouts of the last two years have been "about as popular as a root canal," as President Obama noted in his State of the Union address. This means somebody has to take the blame, and the politicians have nominated the bankers—which certainly beats self-reflection. So it was probably inevitable that New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo would file civil fraud charges against Bank of America, its former CEO Ken Lewis, and its former CFO Joe Price, as he did this week. Everyone assumes Mr. Cuomo is running for governor...

Here is interesting video of Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters trying to help constituents with calling their banks to work out "loan modifications." The video is from an ABC News report, and shows Waters calling Bank of America among others, where she got into a two-hour ordeal of automated messages and eventually getting cut off. In the three cases featured in this piece, she was unable to get anything done for them. I almost never agree with Maxine Waters, but this report does show how difficult it can be to get anything done over the phone with virtually any business entity...

Jon Corzine is definitely open to running Bank of America. There haven't been any formal talks between the outgoing New Jersey Governor and the board of Bank of America, according to news reports. Part of the reason for this might be that the chairman of the board, Walter Massey, is on vacation. The bank is expected to select someone before Thanksgiving

Government regulators threatened to remove top Bank of America executives if they backed out of a buyout of failing brokerage giant Merrill Lynch, and offered to provide taxpayer funds to compensate for Merrill's poor performance, according to company records obtained by The Washington Times. The documents - e-mails between bank executives and their outside attorneys as well as board meeting "talking points" prepared for then-Bank of America Chief Executive Ken Lewis - offer new insight into the hardball tactics that produced one of the biggest deals negotiated during the late 2008 global financial crisis, one that is still reverberating on...

Yesterday was another up day for the three indices. The Dow was up 47 points to close at just over 10062. The other two indices were up more marginally. The NASDAQ was up just over a point and the S&P was up 4.54. That's the second day the Dow finished above 10000. The Dow will test that levels this morning. There's all sorts of earnings news this morning. Tech stocks like Google and IBM came out after the market closed yesterday and they were positive. On the other hand, both GE and Bank of America have come out with numbers...

The liberal political organizing group ACORN, battered by the release of embarrassing videos and allegations of financial mismanagement and fraud, has also been losing support from several major foundations. The Ford Foundation, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the Marguerite Casey Foundation and Bank of America have stopped funding the group and its affiliates over the past year and a half. The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, a network that helps low-income families with housing, voter registration and other issues, receives about 10 percent of its $25 million annual budget from federal grants, according...

Bank of America Corp. announced today that embattled chief executive Ken Lewis has notified the board of directors of his decision to retire effective Dec. 31. The bank said the board will continue ongoing planning to ensure his successor is selected by that date. Lewis will retire as CEO and as a director.

This broke earlier this morning. Bank of America Corp. is suspending its work with the housing affiliate of embattled community organizing group ACORN. The decision comes as three Republicans in Congress ask Bank of America and 13 other financial institutions to give Congress a complete accounting of their dealings with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now or its affiliates.

Bank of America has suspended its current commitments to ACORN Housing, an affiliate of Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), a scandal-hit U.S. liberal grassroots group, the Wall Street Journal said on Monday. The banking company "will not enter into any further agreements with ACORN or any of its affiliates," pending assessments of the organization's operations, the paper quoted a Bank of America spokesman as saying.

Corporations that have given ACORN millions of dollars over the years are now cancelling their donations in the wake of videotape revelations of employees of the infamous community organizing giving advice on mortgage fraud, tax evasion, prostitution, and child sex slavery. Bank of America is reviewing its grant program, while Citigroup is waiting for the results of on-going investigations. JP Morgan Chase had previously ended its relationship with ACORN. Bank of America donated 28 grants totaling almost $3 million to ACORN Housing Corporation (AHC), since 2005, financial records show. A company spokesman said the activity exposed on videotape prompted the...

http://www2.counton2.com/cbd/news/local/article/south_carolina_county_takes_action_against_bank_of_america_after_flag_congr/67214/