Ken Lewis / CEO Bank Of America "Banker Of The Year 2008"

Almost as good as the Satyam Award ( see Satyam Computer Services Ltd has won the coveted Golden Peacock Global Award for Excellence in Corporate Governance for 2008 ).......This guy makes the CEO of Deutsche Bank Jo Ackermann quite a likable & competent person.... Compare the quotes with todays news $ 138 Billion Bailout Needed To Save Bank Of America / Merrill Lynch............

Dieser Preis ist fast so aberwitzig wie der von Satyam für erstklassige Corporate Governance ( siehe Satyam Computer Services Ltd has won the coveted Golden Peacock Global Award for Excellence in Corporate Governance for 2008 ).....Verglichen mit diesem Typ wirkt sogar Ackermann von der Deutschen Bank sympatisch & kompetent....... Knapp 3 Monate später benötigt dieser Clown einen $ 138 Billion Bailout .........

FT Alphaville ( Thanks / Danke )!
"We’re good at this".…losing money, that is. Not due diligence or canny dealmaking.

Selected excepts from Ken Lewis (Banker of the Year) on the Bank of America/Merrill Lynch conference call, September 15th, 2008.

Enjoy!

…we could have rolled the dice and possibly could have got it at a cheaper price. We thought the long-term benefits were so overwhelming, it was such a strategic opportunity that we elected not to roll the dice and to go ahead and do it at this time.

Question: can you provide a little more colour on some of the due diligence that was done?

Well, Joe, you want to go over it again in terms of- and the JC Flowers piece is key because they were renewing something- an effort that had already gone on and been very, very extensive.

Errr…

Clearly we had a tremendous amount of historical knowledge both as a competitor with Merrill Lynch and reviewed and analyze the company over the years.

Mr Lewis, have you ever visited the planet earth?

…it’s not as if we don’t have a very significant knowledge of the markets around the asset classes that are most problematic. In addition, as you would expect, we deployed the team that we would ordinarily deploy in these types of situations, which had well over 45 people from our team on site as well as others offsite outside counsel and the like.

Well over45 people!

We’re good at this.

> That they can get away with such generous bailout terms tells you all you need to know..... The comparable Commerzbank/Dresdner Bailout ( see Biggest German Bailout Stands Now At € 18.3 Billion & Counting..... ) terms for honoring such misjudgement looks almost "draconian".....

> Das so ein massives Fehlversagen auch noch mit absolut geschenkten Bailoutkondidionen "belohnt" wird sagt eigentlich alles..... Dagegen sehen die Konditionen bei dem vergleichbaren Commerzbank / Dresner Bailout drakonisch aus