Bank of America profit more than doubles

[tomm2thumbs]

Source: Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Bank of America Corp said on Monday first-quarter profit more than doubled, as higher revenue from the purchase of Merrill Lynch & Co and a one-time gain from selling shares of a Chinese bank offset a surge in credit losses.
The results are unlikely to stem calls for Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis to be ousted, or to give up his job as chairman.
Lewis faces intense pressure over the Merrill purchase, which shareholders approved before learning of big losses at Merrill that would prompt a government bailout.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090420/bs_nm/us_bankofamerica_3

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beating the street expectations

[loyalkydem]

1. Here's my question

When will they drop the rates on their customers? They did get bail out money after all.

[yurbud]

18. beat me to it. the subheading should be ''Obama admin demands credit card rates cut in half''

[Sinistrous]

2. The wonders of bullshit accounting...

That, and some new asset valuation magic.

This is the offspring of a marriage between a crocodile and an abalone -- a crockabalone.

[tomm2thumbs]

3. heheheh - that's a new one one me - thanks for the laugh

[Hydra]

8. Bwah!

:spray:

Needed the laugh.

[progressoid]

9. I heard it was a crocodile and a shih tzu?

:shrug:






do I have to spell it out?

[DCKit]

4. I guess jacking those credit card rates from 12% to 26% is working. For now.

Citibank just called me and told me I'm in default because when I called on March 29th to opt out (for the fifth time in five years), it "didn't take" on my account. But they'll fix it, yet again - only because I know my rights. Oh, and they don't have any written documentation for these changes, just phone calls and billing statements. How convenient.

It's time to take them over.

[DLnyc]

15. Hey, they trying to pull the same shit on me.

First they took over my fixed 5.99% card from an other company a few years ago. Then they somehow snuck one of those opt-out letters by me and got it up to 6.99%. Now they just sent me a notice in a nondescript, easily missed envelope that if I don't opt out my rate will go up to 14.9% variable. I did call and opt out, but I guess I better send them a registered letter too.

Fucking crooks!

Obama should raise the interest rate on their bailout money to 6589.9% effective immediately.

[bertman]

5. Here's another accounting SCAM the banks are using: I received a letter from the bank

that issued my credit card in which they informed me that there had been a security breach at the company that handles their credit card security. So, they wanted me to be alert to any possible misuse of my card until such time as they could send me a new card.

Fair enough. I thought that was a reasonable approach to the situation.

So I checked my online banking account and see that instead of ONE credit card account I now have TWO credit card accounts. When I delve into the second (new) account I realize that it is identical to my old account except the most recent transactions are going to the new account. I immediately called my bank and asked what was going on. They informed me that they had to form a new account to issue me a new card since the security breach happened and as soon as I got my new card and activated it, the old account would be closed.

Ironically enough, the day I received the letter telling me about the security breach, I took my wife out for her birthday dinner. When I gave the waitress my credit card it would not go through. Luckily I had enough cash to cover it. Funny that the bank did not tell me that I could no longer charge on the old card.

Within a couple of days I received my new credit card. I called in and activated it. A couple of days later I was checking my accounts online and saw that there were still two credit card accounts listed on my records. This time I went into a local branch and asked them to find out why I have one credit card and two credit card accounts with TWICE the balance I'm supposed to have. The bank rep says, "That's okay. They will delete that other account when you activate your new card." When I tell her they activated my card several days ago she calls the main credit card people to see what's going on. Now GET THIS. They tell her that it will take a couple of weeks for them to take my old account off the books because they are having so many new cards issued due to the security breach.

At that point, I become quite upset and inform them that they are showing on their books that I am legally liable for TWICE the debt I have actually accrued on my credit card. And I want it taken off immediately. The rep says she's sorry, but there's nothing they can do about it due to the backlog of card changes. I inform her that I will be calling the State Attorney General to report what has happened.

The next day when I check my online accounts the old credit card account has miraculously disappeared.

If you look at the timeline involved here, my bank was showing TWICE THE ACTUAL DOLLAR VALUE OF MY ACCOUNT listed as a RECEIVABLE on their books for a week and a half, and would have had it on there for a month if I had not said anything about it.

I am guessing that this massive doubleing-up of credit card account values would have added a significant sum to the "ASSETS" of this bank had they been audited.

This seems very fishy to me. Especially given the timing of the "stress tests" and the federal government's interest in the health of individual banks.

[Occulus]

14. Time to act in the worst possible faith

Call the AG anyway and let them know what happened. Make a point to stress that it's been worked out, but that you still want to at least have an active file open with them.

Just because you play nicey-nice with the banks and give them "fair warning" (aside: they are corporations, not persons, and are therefore inherently amoral entities; your own personal morality regarding interpersonal relationships does not apply) is no guarantee that they will do so for you.

Screw them any way you can. Make that call to the AG. They still deserve it, even though it miraculously disappeared. The fact that it did so is a bright red flag that they are, once again, being a bunch of shady bastards.

[primavera]

6. Good, then they can return the bailout monies

ROTFL! Yeah, that one gave me a good laugh too. No doubt the surplus will go to buy another solid gold lear jet for some executive.

[SOS]

7. Baseline Scenario explains these fraudulent "profits".

Re: Citigroup "profits". Similar accounting fraud is going on at BoA:

"1. All the good news was in fixed income trading: $4.7 billion in fixed income trading revenues; falling revenues in credit cards, consumer banking, and private client.

2. Assets continue to deteriorate: $5.6 billion in new writedowns in trading accounts; $3.1 billion in charge-offs and reserves for bad credit card debt.

3. Accounting fictions save the day (the new bit): $0.6 billion in losses that don’t have to be classified as other-than-temporary (and therefore affect the income statement) thanks to FASB; $2.5 billion in “profits” because of the fall in the value of Citigroup’s own debt. The theory behind the latter is that Citi could go into the market and buy back all of its distressed debt, which would be cheaper than paying it off at 100 cents on the dollar. Also: $0.4 billion in litigation expenses avoided (previously reserved) and tax benefits from an IRS audit.

Point 3 adds up to $3.5 billion, which dwarfs Citi’s $1.6 billion profit. Why is everyone so optimistic about banks these days?"

http://baselinescenario.com/

[sarcasmo]

10. Voodoo numbers. I call BULLSHIT.

[tinymontgomery]

11. Firing my sister in law

Firing my sister in law with 28 years with the bank (as it grew ), must have really helped. She had a very senior position in Atlanta.

[Democrats_win]

12. Remember, you, dear American, exist so that banks may prosper.

If you watched the news yesterday, you saw someone defending raising credit card interest rates on you even if you didn't deserve it.

Those banks will make profits off of you. Of course, you have no more to give.

[Vidar]

13. Voodoo economics at its best.

[BelgianMadCow]

16. as do their bad credit provisions

which is why everybody started dumping their shares.

[rcrush]

17. OH GOOD. WE CAN BELIEVE THEM NOW?

The MSN says we can believe them. These corporate giants always tell the truth and work in the best interest of the american people.



DEPRESSION OVER EVERYBODY