Who benefited by US support of AIG

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Barclays $7.0
Deutsche Bank 6.4
BNP Paribas $4.9
Goldman Sachs $4.8
Bank of America $4.5
HSBC $3.3
Citigroup $2.3
Dresdner Kleinwort $2.2
Merrill Lynch $1.9
UBS $1.7
ING $1.5
Morgan Stanley $1.0
Societe Generale $0.9
AIG International Inc. $0.6
Credit Suisse $0.4
Paloma Securities $0.2
Citadel $0.2
Total $43.7

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PIMCO - IO Feb 2009 Gross Beep Beep

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PIMCO - IO Feb 2009 Gross Beep Beep: "PIMCO’s advice to policymakers is as follows: you can’t bail out everyone, yet economic recovery is not possible unless certain critical asset sectors are not only reliquefied, but rejuvenated in price. The prior Administration’s focus on the banks has been critical but unidimensional. The shadow banking system with its leverage and financial innovation, powered a near 25-year global economic expansion, but it is the delevering of those hidden quasi-banks that is now threatening its petrification. Policymakers should not focus entirely on one-off bailouts of large real estate developers, municipalities, or even credit card issuers like they have with Citi, BofA, and AIG. Rather, they should recognize that supporting critical asset prices such as municipal bonds, CMBS, and even investment grade corporate bonds is a necessary step towards eventual economic revival. Capitalism at its philosophical and practical center depends on credit, and while new loans can be and are being advanced via the banking system, it’s a much more difficult task to force shadow banks to lend. That lending depends on securitization which in turn depends on stable and eventually higher asset prices than currently exist. The original focus of the TARP was on asset prices, but the prior Administration quickly lost its way or perhaps its"

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B of A to defer some bonuses over three years

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Bloomberg.com: Worldwide: "Bank of America Corp. is deferring payment of 2008 bonuses of $50,000 or more at its capital markets and investment banking units over three years, according to people familiar with the matter.

Employees who had expected a bonus this month based on their 2008 work will instead get most of it in three annual installments, starting in February 2010, said the people, who declined to be identified because the plan isn’t public."

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Banks on Life Support

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The coming tidal wave of consumers falling behind on their credit cards and other debt will keep banks in sorry shape for the next year or more, Oppenheimer analyst Meredith Whitney told CNBC Wednesday.

“The big banks are going to be on life support for at least 18 months, if not 36 months,” she said. “The big banks will not fail, but the big banks will not grow, in my opinion, for at least another two years.”

Her remarks underscore recent comments by the nation’s top bankers. Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis says he anticipates the credit card industry will experience record losses. Lewis’ predecessor Hugh McColl recently told the San Francisco Business Times that it will take time for the economy to work its way through unwinding the credit bubble. And when he says time, he’s talking years, not months.

“Individuals are over-leveraged,” he said, adding that he’s speaking as an industry observer and not on behalf of BofA (NYSE: BAC).

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Bloomberg.com: Exclusive

Bloomberg.com: Exclusive: "`Destroyed the Market'

To be sure, she has angered investors. Some Wachovia shareholders blame her for wiping them out when she helped engineer the sale and warn that other banks will suffer for it.

``That destroyed the market,'' said Peter Kovalski, senior portfolio manager at Alpine Woods Capital Investors LLC. ``Taking over a healthy, well-capitalized bank, the way they did, now investors are not going to be willing to invest in any bank.''"