A contributo alla discussione, credo che qualche perplessità ultima del mercato sui bond Merrill nasca dalle recenti dichiarazioni di Bernanke.
Bernanke conferma l'intervento FED per impedire che BofA provasse a fare venire meno il deal, ma le sue motivazioni sono queste esposte di seguito.
Dice Bernanke: quando Lewis ci ha espresso le sue perplessità su Merrill, il deal era già stato formalmente definito e la FED ha ritenuto che ogni tentativo di far cadere l'accordo avrebbe avuto gravi conseguenze sulla stessa BofA, che cmq allora era vincolata ad andare avanti.
Ed aggiunge: a prescindere da ogni considerazione sul rischio sistemico del lasciare andare Merrill, BofA non poteva che andare avanti.
E conclude: noi non abbiamo imposto nulla per esigenze sistemiche, l'accordo è un libero accordo privato fra le due banche.
Credo che il mercato avrebbe avuto maggior piacere a sentirsi dire qualcosa di più confortante sul rischio sistemico connesso al lasciare andare Merrill, ma Bernanke mai avrebbe potuto dire che la FED aveva costretto BofA a tenersi un accordo che le andava più bene così da poter salvare Merrill.
Bernanke: Attempt to stop Merrill deal too late
By Lisa Zagaroli
[email protected]
Posted: Thursday, Feb. 19, 2009
WASHINGTON
Bank of America chief executive Ken Lewis' concerns about the rising losses of Merrill Lynch & Co. in mid-December came too late in the acquisition process to break the deal, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Wednesday.
“When the CEO of Bank of America came and told us about the situation, they were just a very short time, days or a couple weeks, away from consummating the deal,” Bernanke said at the National Press Club in Washington. “The deal had already been voted by the shareholders. Essentially at that point they were legally committed. We did not see any realistic legal way to break the deal.”
Three months after agreeing to purchase Merrill Lynch, Lewis traveled to Washington to meet with Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Dec. 17, when it was clear that Merrill was in worse financial shape than BofA had realized.
Bernanke said the Fed consulted with other banking supervisors, such as the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, about BofA's concerns.
“We felt very strongly that the attempt to break that deal would have redounded very negatively on the bank because of the uncertainty it would have created and the concerns it would have raised,” he said. “Notwithstanding the pluses or minuses from a systemic perspective, it was our judgment there really was no option at that point but to consummate the deal.”
Bernanke emphasized that the deal was “consummated freely” by the two companies.
“They had gone through all the due diligence and all the evaluations and the shareholder vote and everything else,” he said.
Lewis has said Bank of America learned about problems with the deal in mid-December after the Dec. 5 shareholder approval and before the purchase officially closed Jan. 1.
Lewis has said he was looking at the bank's right to back out of the deal, but the government insisted the deal go through.
On Jan. 16, the government said it would provide the bank an extra $20 billion in capital and additional protection against loan losses.
Observer Staff writer Rick Rothacker contributed
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