Bank of America, Citigroup Need More Cash
A report in today's Wall St Journal says that Bank of America and Citigroup, who have already received $45 billion each in government bailout funds, have been told by regulators that "stress test" results show they may need to raise additional capital.
Apparently, executives of both banks are disputing the regulators findings, but then again they would wouldn't they?
Citigroup's shares are down 88% in the past year whilst BoA's are down 75%.
Pound Takes A Mauling
The pound looks a bit like Clarissa Dickson-Wright with no make-up on at 7am after a heavy night on the pop today.
Having been administered a severe beating with the ugly stick by the ailing UK banking sector, the pound fell to $1.3744 against the dollar and 91.41 pence versus the euro.
News of Lloyds selling a majority stake to the government sparked a run on banking shares. Lloyds' shares fell to 38.70 pence, it's share price has collapsed from around 260 pence in September when the ill-advised merger with rival HBOS was announced. HBOS subsequently posted a massive £10.8billion last year.
HSBC, in the midst of a £12.5bn rights issue, fell 27.75p, or nearly 8%, to 333 pence. Europe's biggest bank had already slumped 24 per cent last week, wiping £15billion from the company's stock market value.
Short-sellers are betting on HSBC's shares continuing to weaken in the wake of the bank's deeply discounted rights issue to raise a record £12.5billion at 254 pence.
Barclays didn't escape, they were down 11.57% to 57.30 pence, on ideas that they will follow Lloyds into the Asset Protection Scheme.
Royal Bank of Scotland were around 8% lower at 18.2 pence.
Revealed: The Best And Worst Banks In The UK
A Which? magazine survey asking 15,000 people how satisfied they are with their current account, savings, mortgage and credit card providers has thrown up a best and worst list.
The Best banks/lenders were internet bank Smile, First Direct and the Co-op, with another internet candidate Cahoot also scoring well.
The beastly boys were Abbey, Barclays and Halifax.
