Moynihan's Monday
Happy Monday, monkeys. Today, in the stead of one of my usual rant I thought we'd check in on a live banking public relations event. As of 9 a.m. this morning, Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan has been answering questions about the future of BofA. The recent free agent departures of two top executives and a $5 billion dollar Buffett boost have done little to change the state of malaise surrounding the quasi Government Sponsored Enterprise. Everyone is on pins and needles and Moynihan's comments left a lot to be desired. I know some of you were either in attendance or at least in the building, so if you know anything more than what's provided in the link, please do share the sordid and scandalous with us.
Since earlier this morning, Dealbook has been blogging live from the Barclays Financial Services conference. Moynihan under the spotlights discussing "Project New BAC" was the star of the show. Reviews of his performance are still not in. After all, live speeches by bankers in the public eye have become more of a rigged game than any Presidential debate in decades. We can expect to decipher very little about what will actually happen from the scant information that is released. Whether the reason for this is strategic secrecy or the lack of an actual plan, only time will tell.
With BofA expected to eliminate as many as 40,000 positions in coming weeks, a state of panic and fear was one which BofA passed a couple of hundred miles back on the interstate to who knows where.
We certainly shouldn't be expecting BofA to go the way of Lehman or Bear. They are after all very much The King's Bank nowadays. Still, I am having a hard time figuring out how much longer they can be expected to stay an actual IB. Eternal restructuring and cost cutting can shore up your balance sheet and boost your stock price, but a business is not a business without actual positive revenues.
The more and more I watch the foot-in-the-mud saga that is Bank of America the more this whole production feels like an elaborate ruse to raise the stock price to the point where the government can say good riddance to this "investment" of theirs.
Anybody here have any bullish sentiments on BofA? I am more tempted to call them the sick man of Wall Street with every passing fiscal quarter. The worst thing of all is that what I am reading from Moynihan is the exact same garbage I personally heard from Ken Lewis at a not-so-different symposium almost three years ago today.
Oh well... the more things change...
Looks like 30,000 is the number.
http://www.businessinsider.com/bank-of-america-to-cut-30000-jobs-in-the…
ouch
I wish they would spin off the ML piece. Bring back Merrill!
I think Merrill's the only thing working for them right now.
BAML's "core" businesses (IB, Commercial Banking, Wealth Management, Treasury Services) are doing just fine. As we all know, it's the credit card and mortgage portfolio that are killing the bank.
One bullish tid-bit, BAC is currently trading at around a 15% discount to its cash value.
Tan: Do you really think that it is really trading at a 15% discount with the amount of exposure they have with their risky assets. If anything they are over valued by about $5.
When Greece defaults, they will get hit hard because of their European exposure. Greece wont kill them, but when Soc Gen declares bankruptcy because of Greece, expect a major hit.
Other than that, completely agree with what you said.
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