Bank of America Corporation will take a $3 billion debt-related write-down in the fourth quarter. A write-down means reducing the book value of an asset, because it is overvalued compared to the market value. This is usually reflected in the company’s income statement as an expense, thereby reducing net income.
This comes as fallout from the housing and mortgage-lending slump. Joe Price, chief financial officer added that the bank, one of the nation’s largest, is also setting aside more money for potential losses but considers the losses “manageable.
Bank of America, the nation’s second largest bank by assets, is the latest of several financial service companies to lower the value of their lending portfolios in the wake of the subprime lending crisis. Mortgage-related write downs across the banking industry were more than $40 billion in the third quarter, and the fourth quarter could end up being worse. Along with Bank of America and Wachovia, Citigroup Inc. has said it will write down as much as $11 billion and Morgan Stanley anticipates a write-down of up to $6 billion in the fourth quarter.
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An article in the Wall Street Journal reports that Merrill Lynch CEO, John Thain, has asked for a $10 million dollar bonus for the year, after he had to sell the company to Bank of America to avoid bankrupting it. His rationale is that his actions led to the company not going bankrupt, and therefore he deserves a bonus. The Attorney General of New York State, Andrew Cuomo, termed his request as ”nothing less than shocking,” as it seems callous to even ask for a bonus of that size when his company is barely able to stay afloat. Now here is the funny thing – any other ordinary company employee, if they failed to make money for the company they worked for, or failed to complete the tasks set them, they get reprimanded or fired. Perhaps those at the top of the ladder don’t think that the same rules apply that apply at the bottom, and perhaps they should. However, the rest of us don’t have to sell ourselves to Bank of America if we have a financial crisis suddenly – we have options, such as payday loans.
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