who now will make any move made by Obama towards this route appear covertly political.
:eyes:
Wagoner's exit puts BofA CEO Lewis in hotseat3/30/09
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bank of America Corp Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis may be the next corporate boss to feel the heat after the administration forced General Motors Corp Chief Executive Rick Wagoner to resign in return for further government assistance.
The second-largest U.S. bank has received $45 billion from the government, making it one of the biggest recipients of government bailout money in the banking system.
Big shareholders have been calling for Lewis to step down since Bank of America announced in January it took a $20 billion government bailout to secure the acquisition of troubled Merrill Lynch & Co, which lost almost $16 billion in the last quarter of 2008.
The government may now add to the pressure from shareholders, analysts said. The sudden departure of Wagoner after nine years in the top job at GM signals the Obama administration is looking for management changes at bailed-out companies.
"His longevity in the job is probably very much in question," said Keith Wirtz, chief investment officer of Fifth Third Asset Management and a former CIO at a Bank of America subsidiary. Fifth Third holds shares in the bank.
more
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE52T6DP20090330?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=10112Inside the Obama-Bank CEO MeetingBy Rob Blackwell
March 30, 2009
As bank chief executives left the White House Friday after a roughly 90-minute meeting with President Obama, they presented a united front to the media horde outside.
But inside the meeting, which was held in the state dining room, it was clear the CEOs took different approaches. The bluntest was from Ken Lewis, the chief executive of Bank of America Corp.
"Mr. President, I am not going to suck up to Larry and Tim like the rest of these guys," Lewis said, according to sources in the meeting. Lewis was referring to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, and Lawrence Summers, the head of the National Economic Council, who also attended.
Obama laughed along with the rest of the CEOs, before listening to Lewis get to his point: he wants to pay back Troubled Asset Relief Program funds.
And he was not the only one.
Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co., arrived with check in hand to give to Geithner before the meeting started, according to the participant. Geithner took the check briefly to examine it before handing it back. (The check was fake).
Dimon tried again later during the meeting, telling the president he would like to give back his $25 billion in Tarp money.
The overall tone of the meeting was cordial, participants said, with no raised voices or significant tension. Obama's message was essentially one of mutual dependence: we need you, and you need us.
"My administration is the only thing between you and the pitchforks," Obama said.
Still, Lewis complained that all institutions were being tarred with the same brush, saying policymakers should better distinguish between commercial bankers and investment bankers.
But Obama had a rejoinder to that, saying the industry essentially brought that problem upon itself.
He offered to call Sen. Byron Dorgan and ask him to re-establish the Glass-Steagall Act, which was repealed a decade ago. The law put barriers between commercial and investment banks.http://www.bankinvestmentconsultant.com/news/-2661449-1.html
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