Sponsored by Merrill Lynch

By Grant McCool

The names of 200 highest bonus earners at Merrill Lynch & Co last year are not a trade secret and can be made public in an investigation by New York's top legal officer, a judge ruled on Wednesday.

Bank of America Corp Chairman and Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis said the largest U.S. bank could repay the $45 billion of government capital it has taken by late 2009 or early 2010, depending on the economy, according to an interview published in the Charlotte Observer.

Merrill Lynch & Co has taken full control of its Indian unit DSP Merrill Lynch after Hemendra Kothari, the subsidiary's founder and chairman, said he had sold his 10 percent stake to the firm ahead of his retirement.

Boutique investment firms and top hedge funds are slowly lapping up the cream of global banking talent as the financial crisis forces banks to cut staff and limit the pay of their top risk-takers.

The chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has asked for records on the $3.62 billion of year-end bonuses at Merrill Lynch, to see if the panel was misled about the payments, the Wall Street Journal said.

The Obama administration turned up the heat on AIG on Tuesday over its employee bonuses, saying the embattled insurer will be forced to repay U.S. taxpayers before it gets another bailout of $30 billion.

Taiwanese phone manufacturer HTC is planning to produce more android phones this year, the company said. The company discloses the launching of at least three smartphones based on Google's Android platform.

Goldman Sachs and a parade of major European banks, including Deutsche Bank , France's Societe Generale and the UK's Barclays , were major beneficiaries of more than $90 billion of money paid out by AIG in the first three-and-a-half months after its bailout by the U.S. government last September.

Citigroup Inc awarded Chief Executive Vikram Pandit $10.82 million of compensation in 2008, a year in which the bank required two government rescues totaling more than $5 billion.

Bailed out insurance giant American International Group Inc used $107.8 billion dollars from September 16, 2008 to the end of the year to fulfill obligations to customers, revealing for the first time the names of the firms receiving funds.

A longtime banking executive who sold his company to a Bank of America Corp predecessor is calling on other shareholders to oust the embattled Kenneth Lewis as chairman of the largest U.S. bank.

New York State Supreme Court Justice Bernard Fried said at the end of a hearing on Friday that he would issue a ruling within the next week in a legal tussle between New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and Bank of America Corp , which bought Merrill on January 1. The judge will rule whether the names of 200 top bonus earners at Merrill Lynch & Co should be kept confidential.

A judge said he expects to rule by the end of next week on whether the names of top bonus recipients at Merrill Lynch & Co should remain confidential.

Bank of America Corp investor Jerry Finger is calling on other shareholders to vote to replace Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis as chairman of the board, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

Bank of America Corp is seeking to produce more jumbo mortgages, which can range from $417,000 in most areas to as much as $729,750, Barbara Desoer, the bank's head of mortgage, home equity and insurance services told Bloomberg in an interview.

Warren Buffett said he was approached twice to help American International Group Inc in the final days before the U.S. government rescued the insurer last September, Bloomberg said.

Bank of America Corp Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis said on Thursday the largest U.S. bank was profitable in January and February and said it should be able to ride out the recession without new help from the nation's taxpayers.

Merrill Lynch & Co may have misled Congress in representing last November that it planned to pay out bonuses at year end, when in fact it decided to accelerate those payouts, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said on Wednesday.

Merrill Lynch & Co traders may have booked hefty losses late last year only after learning of their 2008 bonuses, but executives chose not to revisit their decision to pay out $3.62 billion of bonuses, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said on Wednesday.

Bank of America Corp has put a private bank it inherited from Merrill Lynch & Co on the block, and the largest U.S. bank may try to sell other assets as well.

Merrill Lynch & Co paid Latin American investment banker Alexandre Bettamio, whom it poached from UBS AG, at least $7 million in guaranteed bonuses for 2008, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.

New York state's top legal officer and U.S. Rep. Barney Frank demanded on Monday that Bank of America Corp provide more details on $6.9 billion in bonuses paid in 2008, including $3.6 billion at the former Merrill Lynch & Co.

Merrill Lynch & Co. have suspended a trader who had $400 million in undisclosed losses in the last few months, according to a report.

Where, oh where, did AIG's bailout billions go? That question may reverberate even louder through the halls of government in the week ahead now that a partial list of beneficiaries has been published.

Where, oh where, did AIG's bailout billions go? That question may reverberate even louder through the halls of government in the week ahead now that a partial list of beneficiaries has been published.

New York’s top legal officer complained to the state’s top court on Friday that Bank of America is continuing to block his probe in to bonus compensation at the bank’s newly acquired Merrill Lynch division.

Where, oh where, did AIG's bailout billions go? That question may reverberate even louder through the halls of government in the week ahead now that a partial list of beneficiaries has been published.

Merrill Lynch said on Friday it had discovered an irregularity in its London trading positions and the Financial Times reported that a Merrill trader had been suspended over a suspected $400 million loss.