toxic assets

The US Federal Reserve ordered Bank of America to adjust its plans for a modest dividend increase, which is a sign that regulators see the bank as being still financially weaker than other financial institutions.

BofA’s plans were to get into the second wave of banks raising dividends in the second half of this year. In comparison with its rivals like JPMorgan Chase & Co and Wells Fargo, Bank of America has less capital and is still heavily struggling to remain consistent.

Bank of America Corp has put up at least $1 billion worth of toxic mortgage assets for sale according to media reports.

Players can place their bids by the end of December for the assets which among other things include already written-off loans and mortgage-servicing rights.

The asset sale is part of a larger effort by the bank to unwind a trove of assets in the wake of the purchases of Countrywide Financial and Merrill Lynch.
 

 EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes stated on Thursday that the Royal Bank of Scotland became risky well before the crisis burst out as it grew so bid that it was "simply too big to operate and supervise."

Kroes said banks' ballooning balance sheets should have set off investor's alarm bells and that she was now trying to "build up solid banks by working with them to face certain realities."

 The US economy needs another cash infusion to take off, as the first stimulus package was insufficient to help the US consumer start spending, and longer-term it needs to devalue the dollar, investor Wilbur Ross told CNBC Tuesday.

President Barack Obama's efforts to kick-start the economy by programs such as cash for clunkers need to be followed by "more dramatic" efforts, Ross told "Squawk Box."

In a prepared US Senate testimony Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for the U.S. Treasury's $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), said that US taxpayers will likely fail to get their money back that were invested in financial companies. He noted that while these funds played a significant role in stabilizing the economic system the bailout may never fulfill certain policy goals.