*one should always be suspicious when the CEO of a company is plastering his mug on all the TV and radio networks all around the Globe. They always have something to hide.
BofA worked with Merrill on write-downs, sources say
Bank of America's chief accounting officer supervised the controversial asset markdowns at Merrill Lynch that were a big part of Merrill's $15.3 billion loss in the fourth quarter of 2008, sources familiar with the matter said. Bank of America sent Neil Cotty to Merrill to work with the finance team, and he supervised the preparation of accounts, the sources said.
With Mr Cotty’s involvement in December, the people familiar with the matter said, Merrill took a fourth-quarter writedown of $1.9bn in leveraged loans and a $2.9bn reserve against an exposure to derivatives linked to asset-backed securities.
Mr Cotty also gave his blessing to a $1bn writedown of credit default swaps involving investment grade companies. The markdown of a position on the “high vol 4” index transformed a gain of $100m into a loss of $900m, said a source familiar with the matter.
Financial Times (20 Mar.)
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