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BofA rules out nationalization and fresh aid: report
AFP - Sunday, February 22
NEW YORK (AFP) - - Bank of America has ruled out the need for fresh government funds or nationalization, according to a memo authored by CEO Ken Lewis and published in the Wall Street Journal on Saturday.
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"Bank of America does not need any further assistance today, and I am confident we will not need any further assistance in the future," the memo read.
"I believe our company has more than enough capital, liquidity and earnings power to make it through this downturn on our own from here on out," he said.
Lewis' comments came after Bank of America's share price was pummeled during trading last week following rumors that the US government could nationalize the bank and rival Citigroup.
The bank's share price had traded as low as 3.28 dollars a share last week -- the lowest level in 24 years -- before a slight uptick to 3.79 dollars a share at the end of Friday trading.
A string of commentators including the former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan had advocated nationalization as the "least bad solution" as markets continued their meltdown.
The US government has already injected 45 billion dollars into both Citi and BofA to prevent their collapse, in exchange for preferred stocks, without voting rights.
Last week's tumultuous stock market dip -- which saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average trade at close to a 52-week low -- was attributed by many analysts to uncertainty over Citi and Bank of America's future.
"Two major banks are collapsing in the stock market," Gregori Volokhin, a strategy chief at Meeschaert New York said on Friday.
"The two banks are implicitly nationalized, which is what is rocking investors in the financial sector."
Lewis is opposed to nationalization, creeping or otherwise.
"Speculation about nationalization is based on a lack of understanding of our banks financial position as well as a lack of appreciation for the adverse ramifications for our customers and the economy," he said in the memo.
The White House has also moved to nix rumors of nationalization, as it grapples with America's sclerotic auto and housing sectors at the same time as managing a 787 billion dollar government spending plan.
"This administration continues to strongly believe that a privately held banking system is the correct way to go," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters Friday.
In his memo Lewis admitted the economic climate continued to be gloomy. "The recession is continuing to worsen and ... rising credit costs will continue to put great pressure on our ability to generate earnings," he said.
But he also offered staff a glimmer of hope, adding that by the middle of the first quarter, trading activity had "vastly improved" versus Q4 2008, when the bank posted losses of 1.7 billion dollars.
According to Lewis, the corporate debt market had also shown an improvement. He added that Bank of America's purchase of Merrill Lynch -- which was an early casualty of the sub prime crisis -- was starting to show "some benefits."
Some analysts had warned that coming after the purchase of Countrywide Financial, with Merrill Lynch the bank had bitten off more than it could chew and was being dragged down by its new purchases.
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