Just because the financials are in for a few further rounds of pain doesn’t mean that quality financial institutions in the U.S. don’t exist. There is a stark difference in the level of risk some institutions took during the heydays of the housing and credit bubble.
For example, take yesterday. Dour Jamie Dimon reported [...]

Merrill Lynch reported abysmal financial results yesterday, in marked contrast to JP Morgan Chase. The company was forced to take $9.5 billion in writedowns, leading to a loss in excess of $4.5 billion. The writedowns also forced Merrill to sell its 20% equity stake in Bloomberg in order to partially recapitalize. Nevertheless, [...]

Remember the money center banks’ ludicrous attempt to pretty up those off-balance sheet vehicles via the ‘Super SIV?’ Well, that was a clear bust. But, the toxic waste in those vehicles is still there. Some of these vehicles have been brought back on the balance sheet, adding additional pressure to deleerage as [...]

Back in June, I wrote about financial investors in bank shares having lost $10 billion. Then, I predicted that losses would mount and bank shares will fall. It seems that one part of that equation is true already as bank shares have fallen precipitously in the last several days on the heels of [...]

With IndyMac having gone bust, bank shares tanking, and speculation rampant about who’s next, it’s time to consider what and how much the FDIC actually insures. This information is available at the FDIC website and I have added a blurb and a link below. But, the long and short of what they say is [...]

Looking at today’s selling wave, a number of bank shares are down over 10% including Washington Mutual (WM), National City (NCC), Wachovia (WB), Zion (ZION). Many other shares are trading well into negative territory with share prices below $10 including KeyCorp (KEY), Fifth Third (FITB), Dearborn (DEAR), and Huntington Bancshares (HBAN). These are [...]

The global economy is gripped by its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. People are losing their homes and their jobs, banks are going bankrupt, and stock markets in the U.S. and elsewhere have fallen significantly from recent highs. Yet, I am more optimistic than I have been for some time. [...]

On the heels of a story about Spanish giant Santander buying Alliance & Leicester in the UK, it comes as good news in the marketplace that another Spanish giant, BBVA (Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria), is on the prowl as well.
After initially focusing on the Hispanic market in the U.S., Spain’s Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA [...]

Banco Santander of Spain is using the down market to snap up some UK assets on the cheap. It has announced the acquisition of Alliance & Leicester, the former building society which demutualised in 1997, for £1.3 billion ($2.6 billion)
Despite speculations of other bank mergers in Europe, few have occurred as many European banks [...]

According to the Irish Independent, the recent fall in Irish bank shares is due to a loss of faith in their bad debt provisions. On Tuesday, Bank of Ireland fell 14%, the largest amount in 20 years.

After last week’s dive in their share prices, the Irish banks are under pressure as never before. [...]