If You Have Any Doubt that Bank of America is Going Down, This Development Should Settle It

Washington's Blog
October 19th, 2011
http://www.washingtonsblog.com
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Editor’s Note: We’ve received numerous emails from readers regarding this most recent development with Bank of America, and we’re seeing the report from Washington’s Blog spreading like wildfire across alternative media like The Daily Crux and The Intel Hub. Why? Because this is big news. Really big. One of the oldest banking institutions in America is now on the brink of total insolvency. The only way to for them to be saved at this point is to take billions of dollars in losses and force those losses to be covered by the U.S. taxpayer or innocent account holders. If you’re an account holder, it might be time to reconsider your allegiance, because in the near future you may be dealing with the FDIC instead of a BofA customer service representative.

The Federal Reserve and Bank of America Initiate a Coup to Dump Billions of Dollars of Losses on the American Taxpayer

Bloomberg reports that Bank of America is dumping derivatives onto a subsidiary which is insured by the government – i.e. taxpayers.

Yves Smith notes:

If you have any doubt that Bank of America is going down, this development should settle it …. Both [professor of economics and law, and former head S&L prosecutor] Bill Black (who I interviewed just now) and I see this as a desperate move by Bank of America’s management, a de facto admission that they know the bank is in serious trouble.

The short form via Bloomberg:

Bank of America Corp. (BAC), hit by a credit downgrade last month, hasmoved derivatives from its Merrill Lynch unit to a subsidiary flush with insured deposits, according to people with direct knowledge of the situation…

Bank of America’s holding company — the parent of both the retail bank and the Merrill Lynch securities unit — held almost $75 trillion of derivatives at the end of June, according to data compiled by the OCC. About $53 trillion, or 71 percent, were within Bank of America NA, according to the data, which represent the notional values of the trades.

That compares with JPMorgan’s deposit-taking entity, JPMorgan Chase Bank NA, which contained 99 percent of the New York-based firm’s $79 trillion of notional derivatives, the OCC data show.

Now you would expect this move to be driven by adverse selection, that it, that BofA would move its WORST derivatives, that is, the ones that were riskiest or otherwise had high collateral posting requirements, to the sub. Bill Black confirmed that even though the details were sketchy, this is precisely what took place.

And remember, as we have indicated, there are some “derivativesâ€