Talk:Ken Lewis (executive)

Banking industry crisis, Merrill Lynch controversy

Obviously this is an appropriate—indeed an essential—element of Lewis' biography. However, the section as it existed contained claims of what Lewis knew and when, when in fact that is not entirely clear and there are a great many mitigating circumstances, such as Bush administration officials who would not allow Lewis to pull out of the planned merger, which was his legal right. There is also a part about the loss of value of the stock, with nothing about the massive gains in stock—up a few hundred percent—from that bottom. There is also nothing about the context, i.e. that all banks, even those without any exposure to CDOs and mortgage-backed securities, have lost a huge percentage of their value in the same period of time, or that the company was profitable in the first two months of the year, or that some of those profits came from Countrywide and Merrill Lynch, the very entities Lewis has been maligned for buying, due to the popular impression that they would not be profitable. None of these elements as discussed were supported by the cites given for the article. While the bio is clearly lacking without any discussion of these issues, it is even more poorly served by presenting unsourced POV at this delicate time. This is not only a Wikipedia:BLP, it is also an article about an ongoing situation that effects the economy in general and BofA stock, even Lewis' tenure with the bank, specifically. As such, leaving this narrow and incomplete POV with a cite tag seems the more irresponsible editing choice. Of course editors are encouraged to source a balanced and contextual view of these issues. Abrazame (talk) 14:04, 29 April 2009 (UTC)

Acquisition of Countrywide

According to New-York Times from 25 AUG 2011 : (...) The bulk of those losses stem from the company’s disastrous acquisition of Countrywide Financial in 2008, the subprime lender whose reckless lending policies have made it a symbol of the housing bubble. Mr. Moynihan’s predecessor, Kenneth D. Lewis, paid $4 billion for Countrywide. It has already cost the company more than $30 billion. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/26/business/buffett-to-invest-5-billion-in-shaky-bank-of-america.html?_r=1 90.46.70.234 (talk) 08:25, 26 August 2011 (UTC)

missing information--Andrew Cuomo lawsuit

I grabbed this from the Huffington Post, circa 2010:

"New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo filed fraud charges against Bank of America and its former top executives this morning, alleging the bank manipulated the company's shareholders and the federal government in order to carry out a merger with Merrill Lynch. According to the lawsuit, former CEO Ken Lewis and former CFO Joe Price hid more than $16 billion worth of losses at Merrill from shareholders in order to ensure their approval of the merger. But after shareholders voted to buy the ailing firm, the bank approached the government to demand an infusion of taxpayer cash. Without bailout funds, they told regulators, BofA would be unable to complete the merger. The government capitulated and funneled $20 billion of TARP money into the bank. Attorney General Cuomo called Bank of America's conduct "a classic example of how the actions of our nation's largest financial institutions led to the near-collapse of our financial system":"

Now I don't know what the upshot of all this has been, maybe even the suit has been dropped or settled, but the lawsuit is notable enough for a new section. --Richard Peterson76.218.104.120 (talk) 09:23, 10 May 2012 (UTC)