Category Archives: banking

Bank Megamerger of the Day

While Wall Street has been utterly transformed by this financial crisis, US Main Street banking has not been. Yes, your local Fleet branch is now part of the same empire that owns Merrill Lynch, but it turned itself into a … Continue reading

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Getting Through the Weekend

The latest move in the fiscal and monetary response to the global financial crisis has been to flood the world with money. The Fed boosted its U.S. dollar swap line with foreign central banks by $180 billion…. The Fed also … Continue reading

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Wachovia Stanley? Really?

Why on earth did John Mack put out a memo today blaming short-sellers for the decline in Morgan Stanley’s share price? It’s the corporate equivalent of pinning a "kick me" sign to your own back — and it looks like … Continue reading

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Morgan Stanley in Distress

The good thing about the fact that both Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley just released their quarterly earnings is that we have up-to-the-minute information on what (they say) their book value is. For Goldman it’s $99.30 per share; for Morgan … Continue reading

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Morgan Stanley in the Crosshairs

Why is the stock market down this morning? Haven’t we just averted catastrophe? Shouldn’t the fears — and shorts — of earlier this week be unwound? Madlen Read of the AP reports: Stocks skidded again Wednesday, with anxieties about the … Continue reading

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Barclehs: It’s On

The FT reports that Barclays is swooping in on its white horse and scooping up the distressed Lehman Brothers: The two parties reached an agreement in the New York morning that centres around Lehman’s core US broker-dealer operations, which perform … Continue reading

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Investment Banks, RIP

The meme of the day is the end of the investment bank. Here’s John Gapper: Morgan Stanley opened on Wall Street on Monday September 16 1935 and, 73 years later, almost to the day, the institution of the broker-dealer died… … Continue reading

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Still Not Breathing Easily

I’ve got a feature over on the main Portfolio.com site today, which is basically an expansion of my blog entry from yesterday on when we can start breathing again. It even gets a bit wonky — I look not only … Continue reading

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Wall Street’s New Realities

My anonymous colleagues here at Portfolio.com have a couple of questions: With Bank of America’s $44 billion acquisition of Merrill Lynch, only two independent Wall Street firms remain: Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Will they now feel pressure to merge … Continue reading

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Merrill-BofA: Doubts Surface

Is Bank of America really going to buy Merrill Lynch? The stock market’s saying that it has its doubts. With stock prices having settled down a little this morning, BAC is trading at $29.36 per share (down 13%), while MER … Continue reading

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Photo of the Day

From the Wall Street Sweetheart:

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Why Lehman Wasn’t Saved

If you’re going to launch a new website devoted to business news, then doing so on the biggest day for business news in living memory is probably a good thing, on balance. Naturally, The Big Money leads today with a … Continue reading

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Wall Street Huddles for Safety

Small banks, it seems, have precious few friends these days; even the big banks worry about surviving alone, and so they’re pooling their resources. $7 billion each, to be precise, from Bank of America, Barclays, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, … Continue reading

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Fed Taking Equities as Collateral

Is the Fed accepting equities as collateral? Bloomberg says yes, the WSJ says yes, Reuters says yes. So, yes. But if that’s the case, why didn’t it say so? Here’s the relevant bit of the Fed statement: The collateral eligible … Continue reading

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Lehman: No Chapter 7, Yet

As expected, Lehman Brothers has filed for bankruptcy. But in a twist, the brokerage subsidiaries haven’t: Late Sunday night, Lehman said it intends to file for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code with the United States Bankruptcy … Continue reading

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Thain’s Elegant Exit

The difference between Dick Fuld and John Thain is that Thain knows when to let go: It could not be determined if Mr. Thain will play a role in the new company, but two people briefed on the negotiations said … Continue reading

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When Can We Start Breathing Again?

The Bank of America deal to buy Merrill Lynch is the first bit of unambiguously good news we’ve received all weekend. Of the four big independent investment banks, Lehman is toast; Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are safe; and Merrill … Continue reading

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Lehman: All Fuld’s Fault

John Gapper has the first best Lehman post-mortem: Fuld never changed, not really. He was still the same dark, obstinate Lehman loyalist that he had always been – a man who never wanted his firm to be sold. And, in … Continue reading

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Lehman: The End Game

As markets start to open in Asia, there’s still no real clarity on what on earth is going on with Lehman Brothers. But the base-case scenario at this point is bankruptcy: ISDA’s been netting derivatives transactions for four hours of … Continue reading

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Lehman: Is Bankruptcy an Option?

Henry Blodget says that Lehman declaring bankruptcy would be a "sensible solution" to its current predicament: A bankruptcy filing would put the company in the hands of a court appointed liquidator, which would take years to sell off everything. This … Continue reading

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AIG: The Mark-to-Lehman Market

Ooh now this is ugly. AIG shares are down 26% today to their lowest level in over 15 years; the firm’s credit default swaps are wider than Lehman’s. AIG was never known as much of a mortgage shop, but it’s … Continue reading

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Photo of the Day

Taken outside Lehman headquarters this morning:

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Debating the Lehman Collapse

There’s a lot of sympathy for Lehman Brothers today — a lot more sympathy than there ever was for Bear Stearns. Dick Fuld might not be the friendliest chap on Wall Street, but his shop is well-liked and well respected: … Continue reading

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Could GE Buy Lehman?

"Banker 700" leaves an intriguing comment on my last post: GE will end up buying Lehman. They actually want LEH. They fit well together. You heard it here first. As Alea points out, it’s not all that crazy. GE has … Continue reading

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Could Lehman’s Failure Cause a Systemic Meltdown?

What are the risks of a systemic crash if Lehman Brothers is allowed to fail? As Sudeep Reddy says, Lehman is just as big and interconnected as Bear Stearns was: Mr. Bernanke, testifying before Congress in July, outlined his three … Continue reading

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