Is Bank of America preparing for a Chapter 11?

Christopher Whalen, Reuters

10/19/2011

Bank of America has managed to step into the kimchee several times over the past couple of months, an achievement that only warms the hearts of crisis communications professionals.  First came the abortive settlement of $10 billion or so in put-back claims by some large investors.  The State of New York and anyone else paying attention intervened.  Settlement is now mostly muerto in political terms, although the big investors are still paying the big lawyers to soldier on in hope of forcing a settlement on all parties.  Only in New York are such things possible.

Then came the decision by Bank America CEO Brian Moynihan to impose a $5 per month fee on ATM transactions, this in response to the Dodd-Frank law which cuts about half of the profits for big banks in the electronic payments market. Consumers reacted in rage to the announcement, which arguably helped to catalyze the Occupy Wall Street movement.  Truth is that the big bank’s cartel control in payments is under assault by more than Congress.  Think technology, Apple and Google, and stay tuned for a future post on the payments revolution.  Steve Jobs does get the last laugh on the big banks.

And now… the rest of the story. …..