RE: question.....Yes, they do need fed approval for a buy back. I think its mainly because of the looming bad mortgages that are still haunting BAC. And BAC needs to prove they can keep a more profitable balance sheet. The fed is worried they won't be able to keep up with dividends or afford a buy-back if they need to write off more bad loans. Then the fed will have to step in with another TARP rescue.
I also prefer if they did a buy-back first, a dividend on 10.12 Billionshares is a lot of money. I would like to see a couple of billion getbought back.
I'm not worried, its bound to happen soon or later.
The fed is just being pricks about it this whole thing and BAC, so everyone in congress can start accumulating cheap shares by scaring the investor public into selling. Politics and the markets go hand-in-hand. See, all of the other financial's are expensive ie. WFC, GS ect. So the fed bullies BAC because they are the cheapest (C doesn't count because they are taking the sucker way out and doing a 1:10 reverse split - crappy decision if you ask me) anyway, they can load up on BAC and it has the most up-side potential. See whats really going on here...Its all a conspiracy!!!
Back to C, they were originally denied also, plus (I'll have to look up the actual release) Citi even stated they were not even considering a dividend until 2012. So why all of the sudden is Citi allowed to have a dividend of 1 cent starting next quarter??? I'm not bashing C, I was a holder till the RS news. RS are never good in the few months following a RS for any company.
The later half of 2011 and all of 2012 will be a total reversal of 2008 and 2009....just watch!
Any thoughts?