non-core assets

The Financial Times reported on Wednesday that Bank of America Corp plans to pay back $45 billion in bail-out funds by the end of the year, accelerated by a program to raise capital. The report said that by the end of September the bank expects to raise over $35 billion in capital.

An IBM survey of over 2750 banking executives worldwide showed that a new order for the financial services industry is characterized by a shift to specialization, higher transparency and lower returns.

The study predicts that banks will be concentrating on the need to specialize around services that clients value rather than continuing to provide a full range of in-house services.