Bank Of America Forces Depositors To Backstop Its $53 Trillion Derivative Book To Prevent A Few Clients From Departing The Bank
Bank of America, which today reported a big bottom line loss net of one-time beneficial items, did something quite tricky and extremely devious last month: it shifted anywhere up to the total of $53 trillion of the total derivatives it held as of June 30 (as Zero Hedge previously reported) on its books at Q2 from the Holding Company, which was downgraded last by Moody's from A2 to Baa1 (the third-lowest investment grade rating) to its retail bank, which was downgraded to the far more palatable A2 (from Aa3). The reason for the transfer? Bank customers who were uneasy with the fact that suddenly the collateral backstoping the operating entity handling their counterparty risk was downgraded to just above junk, demanded that said counterparty risk be mitigated by the bank's $1 trillon in deposits. In other words, as Bloomberg first reported when it broke this story, anywhere up to the full $53 trillion (we don't know for sure how much so we assume the worst case) is now fully and effectively backstopped explicitly by the bank's $1,041 trillion (as of September 30) deposits. Pardon, we meant the people's deposits: the same deposits which caused the bank's website to be inoperative for several days in a row after it was rumored that there was an electronic run on the bank. Why? Just so Bank of America can appears whatever remaining clients it has so they decide not to take their business to another derivative counterparty. And who is exposed to this latest idiocy? Why you. But that's not all: the FDIC, which is the entity backstopping the deposits in a worst-case scenario, is not happy with this move for obvious reasons. Yet even it is hopeless to override the Fed, which as Bloomberg reports, "has signaled that it favors moving the derivatives to give relief to the bank holding company." And so, once again, we see just how much more important to the Federal Reserve are interests of US taxpayers and savers, over those of the banks that effectively run the Fed.
Bank of America Corp. (BAC), hit by a credit downgrade last month, has moved derivatives from its Merrill Lynch unit to a subsidiary flush with insured deposits, according to people with direct knowledge of the situation.
The Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. disagree over the transfers, which are being requested by counterparties, said the people, who asked to remain anonymous because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. The Fed has signaled that it favors moving the derivatives to give relief to the bank holding company, while the FDIC, which would have to pay off depositors in the event of a bank failure, is objecting, said the people. The bank doesn’t believe regulatory approval is needed, said people with knowledge of its position.
Jerry Dubrowski, a spokesman for Charlotte, North Carolina- based Bank of America, declined to comment on the transfers or the firm’s discussions with regulators. The company “continues to accommodate the needs of our clients through each of our multiple trading entities, including Bank of America NA,” he said in an e-mailed statement, referring to the company’s deposit-taking unit.
Barbara Hagenbaugh, a Fed spokeswoman, said she couldn’t discuss supervision of specific institutions. Greg Hernandez, an FDIC spokesman, declined to comment.
The catalyst: the Moody's downgrade of the bank to a rating far more indicative of BAC's insolvent (aka D) status:
Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Bank of America’s long-term credit ratings Sept. 21, cutting both the holding company and the retail bank two notches apiece. The holding company fell to Baa1, the third-lowest investment-grade rank, from A2, while the retail bank declined to A2 from Aa3.
The Moody’s downgrade spurred some of Merrill’s partners to ask that contracts be moved to the retail unit, which has a higher credit rating, according to people familiar with the transactions. Transferring derivatives also can help the parent company minimize the collateral it must post on contracts and the potential costs to terminate trades after Moody’s decision, said a person familiar with the matter.
"All perfectly normal"
The moves by Bank of America are part of “the normal course of dealings that we’ve had with counterparties since Merrill Lynch and BofA came together,” Thompson said today.
Moving derivatives contracts between units of a bank holding company is limited under Section 23A of the Federal Reserve Act, which is designed to prevent a lender’s affiliates from benefiting from its federal subsidy and to protect the bank from excessive risk originating at the non-bank affiliate, said Saule T. Omarova, a law professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law.
With the Fed's blessing:
Moving derivatives contracts between units of a bank holding company is limited under Section 23A of the Federal Reserve Act, which is designed to prevent a lender’s affiliates from benefiting from its federal subsidy and to protect the bank from excessive risk originating at the non-bank affiliate, said Saule T. Omarova, a law professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law.
In 2009, the Fed granted Section 23A exemptions to the banking arms of Ally Financial Inc., HSBC Holdings Plc, Fifth Third Bancorp, ING Groep NV, General Electric Co., Northern Trust Corp., CIT Group Inc., Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., among others, according to letters posted on the Fed’s website.
The central bank terminated exemptions last year for retail-banking units of JPMorgan, Citigroup, Barclays Plc, Royal Bank of Scotland Plc and Deutsche Bank AG. The Fed also ended an exemption for Bank of America in March 2010 and in September of that year approved a new one.
Section 23A “is among the most important tools that U.S. bank regulators have to protect the safety and soundness of U.S. banks,” Scott Alvarez, the Fed’s general counsel, told Congress in March 2008.
In other words, while previously there had been a firewall between the bank's depository entity and the one that gambles, on either a flow or prop basis, with the abovementioned multi-trillion number, that firewall is now gone and all the money has been comminlged, explaining the FDIC's fear. And of course, in order to thank depositors for being explicit guarantors of the bank's derivative business, it is now forcing them to pay a $5/month fee.
Somehow we really doubt the 12/31 update will show a "total deposits" number over $1 trillion. Or anywhere remotely close.
Laslty, nobody should make the mistake that BofA is alone in this move: every other bank that has major derivative exposure and has a depository base has certainly been forced to do precisely the same by its bigger accounts, who have no desire of being exposed to surging counterparty risk and would much rather split it with America's depositors.
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Take your deposits out, move them to a credit union. Problem solved. Risk abated.
Good bye BAC.
LOL.
When my wife closed her account yesterday they specifically asked if she was moving to a credit union. Where do they get off? She said none of your business. I would've been a little less diplomatic.
Had a new will notarized last Sat. at my credit union. I asked the guy if they are getting a lot of new account customers from megabank former customers -- he told me over 10K in the last 90 days - and this is a fairly small (12 branches I think) CU.
There was a guy on CNBC yesterday who was the head of the Credit Union Association and he said new accounts were up 5 fold!
Employee Notice
Due to the current financial situation caused by the slowdown in the economy, Congress has decided to implement a scheme to put workers of 50 years of age and above on early, mandatory retirement, thus creating jobs and reducing unemployment.
This scheme will be known as RAPE (Retire Aged People Early).
Persons selected to be RAPED can apply to Congress to be considered for the SHAFT program (Special Help After Forced Termination).
Persons who have been RAPED and SHAFTED will be reviewed under the SCREW program (System Covering Retired-Early Workers).
A person may be RAPED once, SHAFTED twice and SCREWED as many times as Congress deems appropriate.
Persons who have been RAPED could get AIDS (Additional Income for Dependents & Spouse) or HERPES (Half Earnings for Retired Personnel Early Severance).
Obviously persons who have AIDS or HERPES will not be SHAFTED or SCREWED any further by Congress.
Persons who are not RAPED and are staying on will receive as much SHIT (Special High Intensity Training) as possible. Congress has always prided themselves on the amount of SHIT they give our citizens.
Should you feel that you do not receive enough SHIT, please bring this to the attention of your Congressman, who has been trained to give you all the SHIT you can handle.
Sincerely,
The Committee for Economic Value of Individual Lives (E.V.I.L.)
PS - Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas and oil, as well as current market conditions, the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off.
Lulz. I'm stealing that man!
Having the FDIC backstop derivatives is like asking a homeless person to pay your mortgage every month. Ain't gonna happen.
FDIC isn't really an agency. It's like a ghost agency.
This is quite true, since it's basically a communal insurance fund that was already so depleted that they had the banks pay their fees years in advance back in 2008/09.
That this happened, though, is telling. It really makes the trigger event/black swan possibilities to take out the entire banking system obvious. And banks being the scum they are, I could see them trying to get the full notional value of the derivatives. At this point you'd have to print to cover, and boom, there's the hyperinflationary event that takes place to "save" the banks while reducing the customer's savings value to nearly zero.
Reading this I almost thought to myself, why don't I go and open an account with a credit union?
And then I remembered, it's because it's stored in gold in a vault in Switzerland.
and then I thought WTF!
and yes, seek, the money printing, for which a Credit Union is fuck all protection will begin in earnest when the US can no longer access bond markets due to high rates. It must then pay for everything in cash, and not 2% per year with bonds.
That means that is the yield on a 5 year is 2%pa, then the governments requirement for physical cash goes up by a multiple of 50, instantly, and that's just to stand still.
Good luck with your credit union when that happens...
I was lost, first and almost at the beginning I think.
As long as FDIC has the word "Corporation" in it, it's all good. Corporations never loose and they can always be trusted because they are back-stopped by the Federal Government who has Deposits into such Corporation. In Government We Trust.
Halequin! Give us a link or two where some of us can do the same. Reputable places though!
goldmoney.com
I have some in Switzerland, UK, and Hong Kong. Buy sell, hold cash, swap etc. James Turk is rated AAAAAA+
Thank you, Flacon.
gitano I'm sorry old stick, I have nowhere I would 'choose' to recommend to you. It took me a long while to find a place and circumstances I was happy with, which is not what I would wish to disclose on these pages.
As with everything, due diligence is what matters, ultimately. Reputable is not necessarily well known or well marketed, reputable is the detail in the contracts that allow you to see the contracting parties, to see the valuations methodology, to work out how you can lose your money and protect against it and how to ensure you maintain access to your assets.
If I can give you any advice it would be to plan carefully for income and capital gains taxes first, because that is the ultimate way that all gold investors will lose their money. That kind of information is usually very well kept and not for public viewing because as everyone knows, even if it worked, the tax office would do all tha they could to undermine it anyway. DD is everything...
Keeping your gold safe is a different matter.
If you wish I can set up an email and we can discuss it further...
FDIC...you ought to see their HQ building up close. What an architectural pile of crap. It's a perfect metaphor for their "mission." It's mostly a glass curtain/steel skeleton (not too different from your garden variety office park). But then they covered the upper floors w/cheap-looking pink granite appliqués on the exterior. From a distance, it looks big, solid, and imposing. On closer inspection, however, the street level walls don't even have the cheap-looking applied granite. It's just pink-painted concrete (and not even painted faux to mimic granite). Just a cheap, slap-dash fraud facade...exactly like the FDIC itself.
Speaks volumes w/o saying a word.
Brilliant!
The best thing for everyone to do is to take all their money OUT of the banks, especially the big banks.
Something bad is coming, just like in 2008, and it has everyone spooked. At least credit unions faired better than the banks and they are insured. The big banks are going to collapse and implode into themselves and they will try to take down everyone in the process.
They are fearmongering everyone as much as they can also so that people don't close their accounts. They are also downplaying the fact that they have all their clients closing their accounts.
Chase is scared as hell too. They changed around their JP Morgan Chase web site to show that they "care" about the little people and about communities. I think it's all bullshit because they had a big hand in the mortgage fraud and they will also go down as well.
I hope everyone DO NOT fear the big banks or what they have to say. I also pray to God that the US govt DOESN'T bail them out ever again.
We have to let the big banks know that without us, the people, they are nothing!!
yahoo finance top story:
Bernanke: Crisis Taught Lesson for Central Banks
"Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke says a key lesson learned from the 2008 financial crisis is that central banks must have a dual goal of controlling inflation while supporting the banking system."
ahhh... the REAL dual mandate is now blatant.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Bernanke-Crisis-taught-lesson-apf-70589651.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=main&asset=&ccode=
The truth is always refreshing.
"... of course, in order to thank depositors for being explicit guarantors of the bank's derivative business, it is now forcing them to pay a $5/month fee." Ouch.
That simply wouldn't be legal in most developed countries outside the US. I'm somewhat surprised this bank has any deposits left ...
You need to remember that the US is shedding its "developed country" status. It is now what is referred to as a submerging economy.
And rightfully so! This is a disgrace. There should be Congressional hearings right away.
Yes. They've proven to be such wonderful overseers of the system.
and a fat lot of use eh...
WE NEED REVOLUTION - pure and simple. TPTB just suck...there's really no other way to say it. It disgusts me. I do not know how they sleep at night.
Vampires don't need sleep. They sit up and plot new ways to rob "customers" aka vampire food.
Guillotine time may not be here just yet, but take comfort in the fact that it is fast approaching.
Off with their heads. All the lords and their squires - every last villainous, thieving one of them.
How they sleep is not important. Where they sleep, now that's useful.
Long: Torches and Pitchforks
Short: Time
If there ever is a real revolution, meaning much more than what is happening right now, it may just be the bloodiest one of all. These capitalist pigs will never let go of what they have stolen. I have seen a few videos where some 'rich' people have spoken about how they have food storage closets in their homes and they have also bought guns. They also spoke about learning how to shoot and how they have been turning their money into gold bullions and silver as well.
As I watched the video, I just kept laughing to myself. They were all laughing and giggling and shit, like if we are supposed to be scared of them! Little do they know that they are prime targets when all hell really breaks loose. We also outnumber how ever many bullets they think they have!! lmao
I Enjoy being a customer of Bank america. I've had their credit card for years. I use it, for example, when the coffee shop doesn't have change for a fifty dollar bill.
Bedtime at the Moynihan house....
Moynihan kids: "Daddy, tell us that story about how money gets made out of nothing."
Brian Moynihan: "Well, not so long ago, and not far enough away, there was a place called Countrywide. It was very rich and everybody in Countrywide had an easy lifestyle and a dark tan. Well not everybody, mostly Uncle Angelo. Then things started getting tough for Uncle Angelo and he had to stuff his suitcases with money, and hop a quick plane to a small island."
kids: "Tell us more daddy!"
Brian Moynihan: "So the Kingdom of BofA had to HELP COuntrywide. The people of Countrywide were sad & most of them lost their jobs & their houses. But the Kingdom of BofA was very generous so it gave the Handsome Princes of Countrywide nice houses & good retirements. BofA had friends in the Land of TARP who paid for all of this as a favour. But then all the people who used to love the Kingdom of BofA and carry their cards around in their pockets, got sad & stopped being BofA's friend; they wanted their money back!"
kids: "Oh NO! What Happened?"
Brian Moynihan: "BofA fixed all the problems with Magic Pixie Dust & Debit Fees & stacks of Green Paper & Computer Tricks and made them all go away. Their Special Friends in the Land of Federal Reserve have lots of Pixie Dust & lots of Printing Presses & Green paper and they can make all of BofA's problems go away. At least so far. Now go to bed kids. Daddy has a headache."
http://www.facebook.com/Nov.Fifth
Bob Piss-on-me just said BAC is trading below book value. I'm sure he's done his homework on all of this before spouting off.
Waaaaaaay below if they're really got 1,041 trillion in deposits! I assume that's a typo in the article. But with FASB rules, book value is meaningless - no mark to market, no value can be determined from what they report. Their true book is probably negative, so in reality they are trading way above their book value.
Yeah, typo, 'cos if they had 1+ quadrillion in deposits, problem solved!
But unfortunately they have over 50x leverage between their derivatives exposure vs their deposits. Who needs anything scarier at Halloween? Hey kids, I'm B of A's balance sheet! Boo!
aaand its gone!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAKsMnAM8vk
did they at least pay the $5.00 for the transfer?
2 words. Credit Union.
Next question...
While I've been a credit unioner all of my life, they are not immune from the financial plague either, thanks to the help of the U.S. Central Credit Union (i.e. the central bank for credit unions), who got them all involved in toxic paper "assets."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Central_Credit_Union
http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/03/22/us-financial-creditunion-inter...
Simply put, there is no avoiding the consequences of a crack-up boom. Any place that relies on the fiat standard for sustainability is doomed.
Make sure your credit union doesn't keep it's deposits at BAC...lol
This is so true. Many of the credit unions are no better than banks. Do your homework. I pulled out of my CU after being there 16 years when they were urging members to invest in Goldman Sucks bonds at 5% to "make your money work better for you". They still offer good customer service, lower fees. I think it wise not to keep any "money" in an financial institution more than to clear checks for bills. The shit is coming down and they all will steal every last penny left anywhere not under your direct control. This is not a "Wonderful Life" PM's bitchez.
Tyler- what is your take on the CFTC decision?
That may be so in the US.... in europe however, exposure of credit unions to the TBTF shit tends to be low - not nonexistent, but low. For example, in the recent "do your own stresstest"-article, i moved all sliders to the max - 100% haircuts in the EZ, and so on.... and my local credit union was near the bottom of the failure list, with about 0,1B in the reds.
Where do they deposit their funds? Who are the credit union members (with loans outstanding?). I laugh at my friends who "bank" with a credit union that is comprised of all government employees. What will happen to your credit union when TSHTF? Will your members still have jobs and income?
Good for you, you did your due diligence. I think. What is your CU holding? Gold?
Mine does not deposit funds outside the cooperative.
Don't know - we have a lot of cooperatives where i live, and thanks to the shitty megacorps in my "state" having killed off most of the competition, the cooperatives here have no problem surviving on their own, because people are switching to them en masse. So, i wouldn't know why they'd need gov assistance and have never heard of such a thing. Also, the gov here DOES already have it's own nationwide bank system, with which the cooperatives and corporations are competing.... so again, why should they?
That's a good point but not really on topic - when the entire economy crashes, all bets are off anyways. However, it does not necessarily need to be that the worst of all worst cases happens - so when the outcome is just catastrophic, rather than doomsday, the undercapitalized ones will fall first, and the more autonomous ones later.... which should give oneself more than enough warning time.
(prev reply removed - i didn't correctly read your question and thought you were asking about my longterm holdings)
Okay, i just checked - apparently, it is almost completely cash - just aprox. 15% of the capital is invested in stocks and metals. So, it's major exposure is fiat - if the EUR hyperinflates, the bank goes down.
Where do most small banks and credit unions get funding?
I find a word cloud of your last 10 posts to be rather funny.
http://imageshack.us/f/204/rnrlfprandomcomments.png/
Hilar!
Yep, some big words in there: car, metal, shiny, fuck...
This is so bullish 12000 here we come
new all time highs 16000 and beyond
France and Germany agree on 2tr euro
i dont think it'll help 'em
its becoming very vogue for the masses to go to a credit union...
or opt out by using a pay as you go debit card, m.o.'s and the old stand by....
CASH!
What rumor / earnings just leaked? 10 pts on ES
No rumors needed-it's three o'clock!
next step: withdrawal restrictions and bank holidays bitchez
And we ramp to the highs of the day. So glad I do not short this broken market.
3:00 boner right on time, breakout the lube. LOL 4:00 my time.
I bet this crap trades off in after hours. None of this is real it can't be, can it?
this market trades on a vapor trail at 2pm daily
wall street's,... hell's kitchen, seems cooking the cookbook only makes sense to the head chef [whomever that be (chef ramsey's?)] whose steady diet, composes of two exotic ingredients - one dash arsenic followed by a tasty sip of hemlock, and of course - followed by a good nights read of the financial pages - repeat daily til,... ?
your killing me tyler - great digging
Bank of America screwing their own clients. Wow straight out of the GS playbook.
I'm done with BoA. Moving my fiatsco accounts to my local credit union ASAP. I will also be keeping as much of my linen out of digital space as possible.
Nov 5, 2011 -- Bank Transfer Day
Join us.
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=281139538577206
AIG 2.0 bitchez!
Good thing that Volcker rule is in place to protect depository institutions.
<snort!>
I, too, snorted and spit coffee all over my monitor. The only "deposits" the avg schmuck will be able to retrieve are those financial bukkake products covering them, as they are left behind by Blankfein et al.
Perfect timing for a stick save...another 2trillion will save us!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/oct/18/france-and-germany-move-towards-2tn-euro-fund
I am amazed that anyone here that has been around Zero Hedge for more than 4 days still banks with any of the parasite banks that rob, steal and lie to their depositors. Beyond words for me.
Credit Unions, small solvent banks in our community. No excuse except being lazy.
My wife finally went in to close the zombie account yesterday. We had drawn down the balance to about 100 bernank bucks and they still took her into a room and grilled her on why she was closing. They lied and said everyone had debit card fees and debit fees. My wife brought up the fact that direct deposit was available now a full 2-3 days before BoA handled it. The lady just had no answer. Reminds me of the AOL cancellation process. BoA is going to blow up. The place is in full melt down and the emergency pumps are broken.
What the fuck, eveything just went green.
3:00 PM EST. You can set your watch by it...
Maybe the hyperinflation sets into the market first.. worthless dollars inflating overvalued stocks.
Maybe the market will never go down again.
SPX just broke 1220, next up 1250
3:00 PM EST. You can set your watch by it...
Here we have a TBTF bank at odds with the FDIC. Although it would be a good move politically for the Obama administration to pressure the FDIC to force the issue and confront the TBTFs, my money says they won't. They will therefore provide just another proof of their complicity with the bankers. We will see.
The Obama administration confront a banker? During an election funding cycle? What planet are you on Holmes?
And look at our miners. Gotta keep the faith. Not easy sometimes. But never, never do margin with gold....
Calvinball Rule 1.5: The Calvinball Field should consist of areas, or zones, which are governed by a set of rules declared by players. Zones may appear and disappear as often and wherever the player decides. For example, a corollary zone would enable a player to make a corollary (sub-rule) to any rule already made. Or an opposite zone would enable a player to declare reverse playibility on the others. (Remember, the player would declare this zone oppositely by not declaring it.)
Yay $2 Trillion for EFSF
That's definitely not inflationary.
When BAC, GS, UBS and MS all merge, we'll have the ultimate in acronyms: SSCUM BBAGS.
Love it Ponzi.... Truth.
Better yet, full of BS SCUM BAGS!
NOVEMBER 5TH IS BANK TRANSFER DAY. SPREAD THE WORD. GO LOCAL!!!
On or Before the 5th.. He who transfers (panics) first. transfers (panics) best..
Nov 5, 2011 -- Bank Transfer Day
Join us.
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=281139538577206
it's broken...
CR? "No systemic risk in MERS"? Is that you?