Banking

New York, June 18, 2009 – J.P. Morgan announced today that William Rifkin will join the investment bank as Vice Chairman of Mergers and Acquisitions. Mr. Rifkin will begin in September, based in New York. He will report to Jimmy Elliott, Global Head of Mergers and Acquisitions.

Mr. Rifkin was previously Chairman of Global Mergers and Acquisitions at Merrill Lynch and Chairman of the firm's Fairness Opinion Committee. He has worked on many notable transactions, including Freeport-McMoRan's acquisition of Phelps Dodge, Gold Kist's sale to Pilgrims Pride, adidas' acquisition of Reebok and Cinergy's merger with Duke Energy.    » read more »

CHARLOTTE, N.C., June 19 -- Bank of America Corporation today announced the Board of Directors authorized a regular quarterly dividend of $18.1250 per share on the 7.25 percent Non-Cumulative Perpetual Convertible Preferred Stock, Series L.

The dividend is payable on July 30, 2009 to shareholders of record as of July 1, 2009.

Source: Bank of America

NEW YORK, June 17, 2009 — The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (NYSE: BK) today repurchased the 3 million shares of its preferred stock issued to the U.S. Treasury last October as part of the TARP Capital Purchase Program. The company has paid the Treasury $3,036,250,000, which reflects the liquidation value of the preferred stock and $36.25 million of accrued but unpaid dividends.

Related to this repurchase, the company will record an after-tax charge of approximately $197 million in the second quarter of 2009, representing the difference between the amortized cost of the preferred stock and the repurchase price.    » read more »

Jun 17 2009 - New York -- Today Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) was pleased to pay back the $10 billion in TARP money to the U.S. Treasury.

Morgan Stanley and its employees appreciate the support of the U.S. government, Congress and the Administration during this challenging period.

We also welcome and support the regulatory reforms proposed by the Obama Administration as we continue to work with the Administration and Congress to ensure safety and soundness in the banking system and the strength and stability of our overall financial system.

Source: Morgan Stanley

New York, NY June 17, 2009 -- The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE: GS) today announced that it has repurchased from the United States Department of the Treasury the 10,000,000 shares of the Company’s Fixed Rate Cumulative Perpetual Preferred Stock, Series H, that were issued to the Treasury pursuant to the U.S. Treasury’s TARP Capital Purchase Program.

The aggregate purchase price paid by Goldman Sachs to the U.S. Treasury for the Preferred Stock (including accrued dividends) was approximately $10.04 billion.

The repurchase includes a one-time preferred dividend of approximately $425 million which will be reflected in our second quarter results.

This is expected to reduce reported diluted EPS for the quarter by approximately $0.77 per share.    » read more »

CHICAGO, June 17 -- CME Group released the following statement in response to the proposed U.S. financial regulatory reform proposals announced today by the Obama Administration:

"CME Group believes that the proposal to enhance regulation of systemic risk is an important effort to limit the potential for a recurrence of the recent financial crisis.

"Overall, we support many of the concepts and believe this is a significant step towards restoring confidence in the integrity of financial markets.

"We look forward to working with the administration and regulators to assure that the implementation of the details of the proposal are consistent with effective regulation of our markets and of the economy."

Source: CME Group

June 17, 2009 -- THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much.

Since taking office, my administration has mounted what I think has to be acknowledged as an extraordinary response to a historic economic crisis. But even as we take decisive action to repair the damage to our economy, we're working hard to build a new foundation for sustained economic growth. This will not be easy. We know that this recession is not the result of one failure, but of many. And many of the toughest challenges we face are the product of a cascade of mistakes and missed opportunities which took place over the course of decades.    » read more »

June 17, 2009 -- WASHINGTON – President Obama will lay out a comprehensive regulatory reform plan this afternoon to modernize and protect the integrity of our financial system. While this crisis has had many causes, it is clear now that the government could have done more to prevent these problems from growing out of control and threatening our overall economy.

The President will be joined by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, representatives from the regulatory community, consumer groups, the financial industry and members of Congress for an event in the East Room later this afternoon.

The President’s plan will:

* Require that all financial firms that pose a significant risk to the financial system at large are subjected to strong consolidated supervision and regulation    » read more »

June 17, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, DC – Today, after attending President Barack Obama’s speech at the White House on financial regulatory reform, U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI), Chairman of the Banking Subcommittee on Securities, Insurance, and Investment, issued the following statement:

“The financial crisis exposed serious pitfalls and cracks in our financial regulatory system. Today, the President offered a solid plan to begin to fill in those gaps, reform the system, and strengthen our economy.

“We need comprehensive regulation of financial institutions and robust supervision and rules that give regulators “teeth” to hold firms accountable. The Administration’s proposal offers stronger protection and increased transparency for consumers, investors, and businesses.    » read more »

June 17, 2009 -- Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD) applauded President Obama’s efforts to give regulators more teeth as he proposes the largest regulatory overhaul since the Great Depression. President Obama, his economic team and the Treasury Department today announced its proposal for financial regulatory reform to address the lack of regulatory oversight demonstrated at the start of the current economic crisis.

As we all know, federal regulators were forced to make decisions with few good options last year based on the belief that weakened financial firms were so big and so interconnected that their failure would devastate the world economy.    » read more »

Pledges to Work with White House to Prevent Wall Street Lobby From Weakening Long Overdue Reforms

June 17,2009 -- WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) today applauded President Barack Obama for his focus on the urgent need for financial regulatory reform and for taking a leadership role in putting together a comprehensive reform package. Cantwell has worked closely with the President’s economic team on her top reform priority: regulating the derivatives markets that spun out of control last year and greatly worsened the severity of the recession.    » read more »

June 17, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) released the following statement today regarding President Barack Obama’s proposal to reform and regulate the financial markets:

“In the aftermath of the near meltdown of our financial sector and the deep recession it caused, it is painfully clear we must reform oversight of the financial system in order to rebuild our economy on a sound foundation. I commend the President for taking action in making today’s proposal. As we move forward, it is critical to enact additional reforms not covered in today’s outline and to make sure those reforms are vigorously carried out and enforced.    » read more »

June 17, 2009 -- “The President’s plan is a giant step in the right direction. It ends the era of total chaos and the lack of coherent regulation – and outlines a roadmap to establish meaningful transparency and accountability.    » read more »

June 17, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-IL) released the following statement today after the Obama Administration announced a plan for comprehensive financial regulatory reform:

“For the past two years, we have been dealing with the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The current crisis has many causes, but perhaps the most significant, was the breakdown of our financial regulatory system which left consumers and our markets unprotected.”    » read more »

June 17, 2009 -- Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, today released the following statement after President Obama unveiled his plan to modernize financial regulation and supervision:

“The proposal President Obama laid out today sets the stage for what will be a historic undertaking – building the foundation for a safer, stronger financial system. Consumer protection must be at the center of this effort, and I applaud the President for making an independent consumer financial protection agency one of the pillars of his proposal.    » read more »