The Federal Reserve Board on Thursday announced its approval of the notice of Bank of America Corporation, Charlotte, North Carolina, to acquire Countrywide Financial Corporation ("Countrywide"), Calabasas, California, and thereby indirectly acquire Countrywide Bank, FSB, Alexandria, Virginia, and certain other nonbanking subsidiaries of Countrywide.

Attached is the Board’s Order relating to this action.

Attachment (1.38 MB PDF)

Shakeups at Washington Mutual and Wachovia. Roundtable Discussion with Andrew Seibert of Nextier Wealth Management and Forbes CEO Steve Forbes.

Washington Mutual shares are down after Kerry Killinger stepped down as chairman. Shares of Wachovia are falling below it’s lowest value in almost 13 years after Ken Thompson was ousted.

Chairman Lanty Smith has been appointed interim CEO. Is this new management what these companies need to get back on track? Are there more troubles for financials?

I think their values will go lower until they get a feel for who will take over. There are probably more Writedowns to come.

These banks have not gone beyond the problem of the Subprime Mortgage Industry and there is possibly another shoe to fall.

If the Credit Deterioration continues, there will be many more problems.

Wachovia has big news today. Shares of falling in the premarket after the company ousted CEO Ken Thompson.

Wachovia stated he is stepping down at the request of the board, saying no single precipitating event calls because the board to reach the decision, but a series of previously disclosed disappointments and setbacks cumulatively have negatively impacted the company and performance. Perhaps you can call it an understatement.

Shares down 57% in the past 12 months.

Washington Mutual , hard-hit by the mortgage and credit crises, will replace Chief Executive Kerry Killinger as chairman of the board.

As we continue to analyze and manage our product set, Chase has made the decision to discontinue offering our Subprime and Home Equity products through our Wholesale channel.

New Wholesale Subprime and Home Equity registrations will not be accepted after Friday, May 16, 2008.

It is not just Bank of America that is reeling from subprime problems, the largest banks in the world have posted $290 billion of credit losses, since the beginning of 2007.

Bordering On Insanity