Quit whining. You bought Countrywide and Merrill Lynch, two black holes of risk trailing hundreds of billions in iffy assets. The economy then contracted at a 25 percent annual clip. You took $45b. in emergency support from the feds. So yeah, heading into the second half of the year you might need to raise an additional $35-40b. in capital.
Why should this surprise anyone? Aside from the constant denials from BofA on the topic, I mean.
I guess you could be surprised considering that BofA has been trying to jawbone and prop up all its asset values and its share price in recent weeks. But to me that just indicates that, yes, the bank plans to raise more capital. BofA execs, being proud bankers after all, don’t want to admit this for the world to see, so the denials. Let’s just let them have their pride as long as they move in the right direction.
And that direction is toward a well-capitalized bank scrubbed of toxic assets.
Bonus Observation: You too, Wells.
