Bank on Banking » jp morgan

In the News: Jamie Dimon – “I’m Out, Peace”

IBanker — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 01:17:21 +0000

Well, not really, but rumors are swirling, and have been confirmed by the king of the Street himself, that Jamie Dimon has begun to craft an exit strategy allowing him to step down from the helm at JP Morgan. I personally think that it is a great move – Mr. Dimon is living well with one of the best, if not the best reputations on the Street – if he plays his cards right and steps aside with the company doing well, he will have done what few former big banks CEOs have been able to do – leave with his name and reputation in good standing (generally speaking).

His plans, at this point are still fuzzy (at least this is what he’s been willing to divulge), but he has promoted Jes Staley to the head of investment banking, in a move, seen by many, as the equivalent of Dimon showing an ace in the hole while playing a hand of blackjack (in other words, Staley is now seen as the frontrunner to succeed Dimon). Of course it’s still early and plans can always change, if not disappear entirely (meaning Dimon decides to stick around for a while longer), but as of now, Mr. Dimon seems to have had enough to the game and is ready to start cooking (literally – see the full article for more details).

Dimon Moving On…

In the News: We Have Seen the Light! 10 Banks Revealed and No Salary Caps

IBanker — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 12:24:53 +0000

As a quick follow-on to yesterday’s post, here are the 10 banks that will be repaying TARP in the first wave. Morgan Stanley is on the list, so it looks like Mr. Mack has played his cards right and is on his way to bringing MS back to the top baby! Surprisingly, one of the banks that everyone expected to be running towards to the opportunity to pay back the TARP funds, Wells Fargo, is not on this list, which means either they have decided not to repay just yet, or they are not being allowed to repay just yet – hmm.

10 Big Boys Shoving the Government Dole

1. JP Morgan – $25 billion

2. Goldman Sachs – $10 billion

3. Morgan Stanley – $10 billion

4. U.S. Bancorp – $6.6 billion

5. Capital One – $3.6 billion

6. American Express – – $3.4 billion

7. BB&T – $3.1 billion

8. Bank of NY Mellon – $3.0 billion

9. State Street – $2.0 billion

10. Northern Trust – $1.6 billion

Part 2 of this post refers to Obama’s salary caps, or, should I now say, his lack thereof. The good news (as you can probably tell from the title): the proposed salary caps that team Obama was seriously considering have, thankfully, been squashed. The bad news: the broader regulations (more likely recommendations, which begs the question: how effective can recommendations really be?) that have not yet been fully described are barreling towards us as planned, and Congressional bonus restrictions will be fully supported by team Obama.

One aspect of the broad recommendations that has been hinted at involves appointing a “pay czar,” who will be in charge of monitoring the salary practices of those institutions that received (and still have) TARP funds. Geithner, in his usual merry way, is pushing to monitor all firms, not just TARP firms, to more closely tie incentive compensation long-term performance by paying bonuses in restricted stock, as opposed to the more traditional cash and stock plans (unless Timmy doesn’t know that most bonuses are paid cash up to a point, and then the rest in stock that has a vesting period). It all sounds very exciting and the full briefing is due out today/tomorrow.

10 Banks Revealed

Goodbye Salary Caps

In the News: Take Your TARP and Shove It!

IBanker — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 13:33:52 +0000

As early as later today, the Treasury will announce that 10 of the formerly troubled banks who received government aid (i.e. TARP) will be allowed to pay back the government and move past all of this fun. Among the institutions included are JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, American Express and State Street (although JP Morgan is the only one that has definitively been stated, the others are strong presumptions and highly likely candidates). Having raised more than sufficient capital and after jumping through every other Geithner hoop, the treasury will finally allow these banks to buy back the government’s shares in their respective companies.

Morgan Stanley, hoping to not be left out of the “in crowd,” those institutions allowed to pay back the government in this, round 1, has raised nearly $7 billion, well north of the $1.8 billion that they were required to raise as part of the stress test results. Considering, however, that MS has received $10 billion from the government, the jury is still out as to whether they too will join the “1st rounders” and be given their pass to freedom.

TARP, No Thank You!

In The News: BofA Following Goldman’s/JP Morgan’s Footsteps – No, Seriously

IBanker — Thu, 21 May 2009 20:11:55 +0000

By now, most of you should know that Goldman Sachs is leading the TARP payback charge. Anxious to remove the government’s sticky fingers and crotchety tone from their bank haven, Goldman has made it clear that they are planning to pay the TARP money back ASAP – and in their case, ASAP is not code for sometime between now and 27 years from now, but rather in the next few months if not less. Nipping at their heels, Mr. Dimon has also voiced his plans to pay the TARP funds back in quick manner, and not to be outdone by GS, intends this timeframe to not span longer than a few months. No big surprises so far, I mean it is essentially #1 vs…well…#1, so of course they are eager to get back to crushing the competition and taking advantage of opportunities. And here’s the twist, the shocker, the “holy crap,” if you will…Bank of America is planning the same thing – a FULL TARP funds return – $45 billion!

I was shocked when I read it too, and while it could all just be for show, as it stands right now, BofA is claiming that they will be ready, willing and able to pay the TARP funds back, in their entirety, by year end. While this is not as fast as GS or JPM, come on, it’s BofA for goodness sake – I was expecting those TARP funds to stay out through at least 2012. Time will tell whether there is any validity to the claims, and any truth to the words. As it stands right now, however, it would appear that BofA fully intends to be government free by the end of the year.

Bank of America has the $

In the News: Who Needs Capital? Stress Test Victims Scramble…

IBanker — Fri, 08 May 2009 20:44:52 +0000

The news is out, as I’m sure most of you are by now aware, and it’s now time to raise the money. As it stands, here are the figures:

Losers

B of A – Needs around $34 billion (wow…keep in mind, however, that they are claiming they don’t need government backing and are still planning to pay back Tarp quickly – maybe they’re right. Or maybe, it’s just business as usual as the B of A locomotive derails and plows into the side of a mountain – either way; it should be an interesting sight).

Citi – Needs around $5.5 billion (this is a drop in the bucket though considering what they’ve already raised and been through. At this point, Vikram should be kicking back and just waiting for the swarms of investors to come rolling in – any minute now). Citi has already converted some preferred shares and considering the $5 billion is honestly less than what was expected, as I just said, Vikram should be sitting pretty right about now.

Well Fargo – Needs around $15 billion (surprising considering the fuss that they’ve put up, but not all that surprising considering they did buy Wachovia and all of the precious CA mortgage paper that Mr. Thompson gobbled up a few years ago.)

GMAC – Needs roughly $11 million (not terribly surprising, though a bit sad – I like 0% financing promotions and don’t want them stopped just because they need a measly $11 million or so)

Morgan Stanley – Needs just under $2 million – eh, no big deal – Mack’s got that locked up.

KeyCorp, PNC, Regions Financial, SunTrust and 5th 3rd Bank – Each company needs just between $0.5 and $2.5 million. I don’t these results surprise, nor really matter all that much to anyone – so we’re moving on to the WINNERS.

Winners

JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, American Express, BB&T, Bank of NY Mellon, Capital One, MetLife, US Bancorp and State Street – Solid, strong and capitalized…at least the government. Keep fighting the good fight guys…keep it together.

Onto the Show…

In The News: Stress Test Update – 1 Month To Raise Capital

IBanker — Tue, 05 May 2009 15:28:26 +0000

So we’re not sure why, or the consequences of failure, but it seems that banks which fail the stress test and are required to raise capital, will have just 1 month to raise all of the funds. Though the methods that can be utilized to raise the capital include capital raises, preferred sales and unit sales, it still seems like this time frame will pose far more problems than regulators seem to believe. But hey, regulators haven’t been wrong yet, right? Wait…ah, never mind, I’m sure they won’t be wrong AGAIN… Good luck B of A (no surprise), Citi (no surprise), Wells Fargo (pretty surprising to me as they certainly put up a fight when accepting funds and certainly didn’t seem interested in any assistance), and several others.

JP Morgan and Goldman, congrats for you two seem to be amongst the stress test winners!

One Month or…I don’t know…something bad?

In the News: Bank of America Needs Big $ – Stress Test Results

IBanker — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 01:18:25 +0000

According to the stress test, B of A could need as much as $60-70 billion more in order to pass the stress test. Essentially, what we’re talking about here is converting all of the preferred equity interests to common shares to get them started in the right direction, and then, well, simply a hope and a prayer. Citigroup is no better off, and will require a hefty cash infusion itself in order to pass the governments [rigorous?] stress test.

I don’t think these results surprise anyone; as most people already understand that Bank of America and Citigroup are in big trouble and are pretty much being propped up by the government.

Full Article

In the News: JP Morgan – The New Goldman Sachs

IBanker — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 23:48:43 +0000

JP Morgan is #1 – apparently it has knocked the crown off of the head of Goldman Sachs.

I am not even going to comment on this story, take a gander at the Portfolio article, and leave your thoughts and outrage (or delight) in the comment section below.

JPM Takes them all DOWN