Bank of America’s Chief Executive Ken Lewis said today that the $20 billion his institution received in order to secure their takeover of Merrill Lynch was a “tactical mistake.”

While not regretting taking the money, Lewis said he acted far too cautious, and should have requested less. The result caused market observers to view the bank as weak as their competitor Citigroup:

“In hindsight, it was a tactical mistake because it put us in the same category as Citigroup,” said Mr Lewis. “We could still have had 8 per cent tier 1 capital after a $15bn loss but we wanted a cushion.”

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In a recent interview with CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo, Bank of America Chairman and CEO Ken Lewis told the news anchor that BofA would not need any more TARP funds. And, Lewis said, his company is working to pay the government back as soon as possible.

In a strong expression of faith, within the past two weeks Lewis has purchased approximately $2 million worth of BofA shares: Read the rest of this entry »

In a deal that was set to finalize at the turn of the year, Bank of America’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch has been delayed over BofA’s claims that they’ll need more money in order to complete the government-encouraged deal:

The commitment of funds is further evidence of the banking system’s delicate condition and its hunger for more capital, despite billions of dollars already invested in financial institutions by the government.

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The Consumerist is a favorite stop for us in our daily perusal of different financial blogs and websites. Just one of many entertaining features on The Consumerist is their “Recession Watch,” especially went it pertains to the world’s most famous chain restaurant — McDonalds. The recession has hurt a lot of businesses in different ways, McDonalds being no exception. As the credit crisis has froze lending, resulted in thousands of lost jobs, McDonalds has also been forced to tighten up policy in order to cut costs:

Recession Watch: McDonald’s Cracks Down On Sauce Scofflaws

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JP Morgan Chase is the latest financial institution to announce a venture that will provide foreclosure assistance to its customers. JP Morgan announced Friday (Oct. 31) they plan to modify $70 billion in subprime and option ARM loans — a plan that could service 400,000 homeowners with either a lower interest rate, a smaller principal, or another more-affordable term. The bank currently holds $27 billion in subprime and $51 billion in option ARM mortgages after purchasing Washington Mutual in September.

Currently, rival Bank of America has two separate foreclosure-assistance initiatives underway. The first which is aimed at providing foreclosure relief to 265,000 of its customers with various types of mortgages, and the other which has been constructed in conjuncture with various states’ attorney generals as part of BOA’s takeover and settlement of Countrywide. BOA plans to spend $8.4 billion in restructuring subprime and option ARM loans from former Countrywide customers.

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As deals from Barclays and Bank of America fell through to purchase Lehman Brothers over the weekend, the 158-year old company was forced to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection early this morning:

Lehman said none of the broker-dealer subsidiaries or other subsidiaries of LBHI will be included in the Chapter 11 filing and all of the broker-dealers will continue to operate. Customers of Lehman Brothers, including customers of its wholly owned subsidiary, Neuberger Berman Holdings LLC, may continue to trade or take other actions with respect to their accounts, Lehman said.

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