Execs Wanted To Buy Merrill Lynch Back
According to a report in The Financial Times, former Merrill CEO Dan Tully, ex-private client head Launny Steffens and Winthrop Smith Jr, a son of one of Merrill's founders, had lunch with BofA CEO Ken Lewis, and floated the idea of a buy-back.
After seeing his firm's stock price plummet and his reputation in tatters (at least at the moment) over the Merrill deal (not to mentioned the indignity of being grilled by Congress), Lewis, however, was in no mood to wave the white flag and turn his back on the firm he acquired in a hurry last September. Intent on staying the course (and obtaining personal redemption), Lewis is said to have 'politely rebuffed' the idea, and moved on to other topics.
The New York Post reports that ex-Citi boss Sandy Weill and Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack were among a 'handfull' of bank executives who travelled by company executive jet to holiday destinations last fall, at a time when their firms were being bailed-out by the US taxpayer.
And Reuters reports that CIA is following Britain's MI6 and is after former bankers to go work as analysts for the agency. Bankers will need, however, to pass a lie detector test to prove that joining up is motivated by a desire to serve, rather than the money (experienced recruits can bag $160,000). No chance there, then.
Finally, The New York Times reports that Bernie Madoff's securities unit is to resume business. With a new owner, it has been renamed Surge Trading.