Citigroup has won its first battle for Wachovia, as Supreme Court Justice Charles Ramos has temporarily blocked Wells Fargo from acquiring the troubled U.S. bank Wachovia. Citigroup had signed an exclusive agreement with Wachovia and even provided funding for the troubled bank last week; however, on Friday Wells Fargo announced a takeover bid valued at $15 billion for the troubled bank. Wells Fargo's... More

Citigroup & Wachovia have entered into preliminary merger negotiations. Both banks have been hit hard by the credit crisis. Any negotiations between the two companies may be directly dependent on how the current bailout proposal surfaces.

Merrill Lynch downgraded Wachovia Wednesday sending the stock down nearly 7 percent. Merrill expects Wachovia to "underperform" the broader market index. Wachovia is currently the 4th largest bank in the U.S.

Wachovia is the next large bank to settle its Auction-Rate securities case. They have reached a preliminary settlement for $9 billion to buyback auction-rate securities hit by the credit crunch. The settlement includes about $5.7 billion for individual investors and $3.1 for institutional investors.

Wachovia Corp, the fourth largest bank in the U.S., is planning to end its mortgage lending in 19 states. The move comes after the lender continues to face massive losses related to its 2006 acquisition of Gold West Financial Corp. The bank will eliminate 125 more jobs as part of the move.

CEO Bob Steel invested more then $16 million for 1 million shares of Wachovia. Wachovia reported a loss of nearly $8.9 billion and announced job losses impacting more then 10,000 employees. Steel stated, "Wachovia is a great company and I made the investment because I believe in the core strengths of the organization and that it is an excellent investment."

Wachovia reported a $8.9 billion quarterly loss due to massive losses related to bad mortgages. In order to deal with the losses the bank has slashed its dividend for a second time and announced plans to cut over 10,700 job. Despite the bad news, Chairman Lanty Smith stated that the bank is very much committed to remaining independent.

Regulators inspected Wachovia's security division as part of a probe into the company's sale of auction-rate bonds. Investigators were looking for information pertaining to sales practice, internal evaluations, and marketing strategies.

Shares of Wachovia dropped over 7 percent to a new 17 year low as CEO Robert Steel took office. There are concerns that the new CEO will not be able to derail the company from the misfortunes and the falling credit market.

Finally, Wachovia announced Monday that it is quitting its mortgage payment option plan that allows consumers to pay less than the full interest payment. These types of loans allowed borrowers to get into positions where they owed substantially more then the value of their home causing their monthly payments to continually increase.

Wachovia has hired Goldman Sachs to provide advice on its loan portfolio. As of the end of March, Wachovia has roughly $480.5 billion in net loans, up nearly 14 percent from a year prior. The news implies that Wachovia may be looking to write down a sizable portion of its loans, which may provide a significant impact on its second quarter earnings.

Shares of Wachovia dropped to their lowest point since 1992 on news that the bank may need to cut their dividend a second time. Also an option ARM specialist reported that the bank's percentage of nonperforming assets rose to 14.33 percent of its overall assets drastically up from 1.3 percent a year prior. Nonperforming assets are loans, which the bank is no longer receiving payments.

According to Goldman Sachs, Wachovia who recently replaced their CEO, may need to lower its dividend by another 50 percent. Goldman Sachs also lowered their price targets on the company by 13 percent to $28 dollars a share. Investors are concerned that Wachovia's losses may be larger than expected cutting into the company's earnings.

At the request of the board, Ken Thompson has retired from his position as chief executive officer. Much of Wachovia's current financial issues are with his decision to acquire Golden West Financial Corp in 2006 exposing the bank to an onslaught of bad housing loans. The stock dropped over 6 percent immediately following the news.

Wachovia announced Thursday that CEO Ken Thompson will no longer serve as chairman of the board. This will allow him to focus 100% of his time as CEO guiding the company. Lanty Smith, the bank's head independent director since 2000, will become the new chairman of the board.