Bernanke stated that 19 of the nations largest financial institutions will be eligible to replace the government's preferred shares into common stock as losses continue to mount. Under the program, financial institutions with more then $100 million in assets who received federal funding would qualify. The move would place the government owning a large percentage of the financial institutions.

Bank of America is currently in negotiations with the U.S. Treasury for more funding for its Merrill Lynch acquisition. Bank of America has already received $25 billion in government capital, and the Treasury Department now has less than $60 billion as part of the original bailout package in order to supply financial institutions.

According to two people familiar with the mater, Morgan Stanely may pay between $2 to $3 billion for a controlling stake in Citigroup's Smith Barney retail brokerage business. The cash would help out Citigroup, who is coming under mounting pressure to clean up its balance sheet after borrowing $45 billion from the government last year.

Bank of completed its acquisition of Merrill Lynch today. Bank of America now has the largest wealth management business in the world with nearly 20,000 financial advisors managing over $2 trillion in client assets. Under the terms of the acquisition each Merrill Lynch shareholder will receive 0.8595 shares of Bank of America for every share of Merrill Lynch they own.

Wells Fargo & Company stated today that is has completed its merge with Wachovia. Wells Fargo now has banks in 39 states with 11,000 stores and 12,260 ATMs. At closing Wells Fargo acquired all of Wachovia's shares in a stock for stock transaction. Wachovia shareholders received 0.1991 shares of Wells Fargo for every share of Wachovia stock they owned.

Former AIG CEO, Robert Willumstad, declined an award of 1.05 million restricted shares. Willumstad led the company for just three months, before the government appointed Liddy in September. Willumstad previously declined severance pay of $22.5 million stating that it was unfair while employees have lost considerable value in their AIG shares.

The New York Stock Exchange has received approval from the SEC to clear credit default swaps in the U.S. The approval marks the first step towards providing greater oversight to the nearly $54 trillion market, which until now has operated unregulated. Congress is expected to take up the issue of regulating the credit default swap market early next year.

American Express, a credit card company who is converting to a bank, will receive $3.39 billion from the U.S. $700 billion bailout fund. The company gained approval to become a commercial bank last month as it faces rising defaults. The Treasury Trouble Asset Relief Program will receive preferred shares that pay a 5 percent dividend for the first five years and a 9 percent dividend thereafter in... More

Both Discover and Capital One are closing idle credit card accounts that have not been used in recent years. Bill Hardekopf, president of lowcards.com, stated, "if you have a card that has been hanging around in your sock drawer and you get on tough times, there’s a chance that you might use it." Credit card companies are trying to protect themselves from what could be risky behavior.

Bank of America announced today plans to cut 30,000 to 35,000 over the next three years. The cuts are part of the companies cost cutting strategy with its acquisition of Merrill Lynch and due to weak economic conditions. With the Merrill Lynch acquisition the company currently employees 307,000 people.

SunTrust Banks stated Tuesday it has received preliminary approval for an additional $1.4 billion from the U.S. Treasury Department. SunTrust has already received $3.5 billion in the form of preferred shares under the program.

There is speculation that Deutsche Boerse and NYSE Euronext may merge. If the merge is successful, the new combined company would become the world's top securities and derivatives exchange.

UBS Wealth Management, a small division of UBS AG, has recently hired 132 new financial advisors in order to increase its recruiting efforts. Advisors have left UBS after the company announced billions in write-downs; however, now UBS is "seen as one of the places to be right now," according to Danny Sarch, president of Leitner Sarch Consultans.

JPMorgan stated on Monday that it plans to eliminate 9,200 jobs at Washington Mutual. It acquired the company on September 25th, after Washington Mutual became the largest bank failure in history. At the end of September Washington Mutual employed between 41,500 and 42,000 workers nationwide.

Two investors of Bank of America's Countrywide sued the company Monday over its plans to make nearly $8.4 billion in loan modifications as part of its settlement with 15 state attorneys. The complaint claims that Countrywide has no plans to absorb the reduction in loan payments but to pass it along to the trusts who purchased the loan agreements.