Moody's cuts BofA, Wells Fargo and Citi ratings

[newmisty]

Moody's cuts BofA, Wells Fargo and Citi ratings

On Wednesday September 21, 2011, 2:14 pm EDT

NEW YORK (AP) -- Moody's Investors Service lowered the debt ratings for Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo & Co. and Citigroup Inc., saying it is now less likely that the U.S. government would step in and prevent the lenders from failing in a crisis.

The ratings firm said Wednesday that it believes the government is likely to provide some level of support for financial institutions, but is also more likely now than during the 2008 financial crisis to allow a large bank to fail should it become financially troubled.

The downgrades were widely expected after the three banks were placed on review by the ratings agency in June. They also stem partly from new laws that went into effect under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act that was passed last year. The new law ended the possibility of the government bailing out a large financial firm and creates a way to liquidate failed financials.

Bank of America was the worst hit -- with a two-notch downgrade in its key long-term debt ratings to Baa1 from A2. Wells Fargo's long-term debt was downgraded by one notch to A2 from A1, while Citigroup's rating remained the same at A3. However, Moody's downgraded Citi's short-term debt.

Moody's also downgraded the rating on both Bank of America and Wells Fargo for deposits.

All of the ratings are investment grade.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Moodys...39162.html?x=0

[TimoneX]

Moody's is really going out on a limb here. I guess they figure that risk has increased since our allegedly capitalist goobermint will draw the line at only one multi-billion dollar corporate bailout per company. I wonder if there's a "too big to fail" time limit and each company can shoot themselves in the foot and get a tax payer supported "do-over" only once every 10 yrs or so. Sorry guys we looted honest Americans to pay for your last self inflicted collapse...you're now off the too big to fail list until 2018...at which time you may fail and we'll again rob everyone to pay your executives' boats off.

[CiscoKid]

I don't know if this was justified or not, but I have been looking for an excuse to quit B of A for a while now. The fact that they were giving credit to illegals galled me but I was too lazy to make the change. When they accepted bailout money I wanted to switch but was too lazy to do it (I'm busy, O.K?). I currently bank with three banks - M&T, PNC, and B of A. Tomorrow, I will make the move to open a fourth account and transfer all my B of A assets over to the new bank. Thinking of going with a small, no-name, hometown bank this time. Smurf B of A.

[TimoneX]

Member owned Credit Union.

[Argentsum]

The report came out at 2:14 PM EDT. Does this mean it was announced after the markets closed?

I'm just curious as, well, if the markets haven't digested this yet it could have some small impact on how
things play tomorrow.

[phideaux]

The report came out at 2:14 PM EDT. Does this mean it was announced after the markets closed?

I'm just curious as, well, if the markets haven't digested this yet it could have some small impact on how
things play tomorrow.

Markets in New York close at 4:00 PM ET

[phideaux]

BOA, WF, JPM, Sh*ttyBank let 'em fail!

It's the only way to reboot the system.

[Argentsum]

Markets in New York close at 4:00 PM ET

Thanks, I translated when it already was. Time travel is an occasional source of confusion for me.

[newmisty]

I don't know if this was justified or not, but I have been looking for an excuse to quit B of A for a while now. The fact that they were giving credit to illegals galled me but I was too lazy to make the change. When they accepted bailout money I wanted to switch but was too lazy to do it (I'm busy, O.K?). I currently bank with three banks - M&T, PNC, and B of A. Tomorrow, I will make the move to open a fourth account and transfer all my B of A assets over to the new bank. Thinking of going with a small, no-name, hometown bank this time. Smurf B of A.

Funny, I specifically opened an account(keep minimum balance in a savings) with BoA to order halves from. I've made over $200 from them so far.

[Canadian-guerilla]

-283 today

-171 between 3 pm & 4 pm

http://bw.dowjones.com/mdc/public/pa...od=mdc_h_usshl