BofA Denied Dividend Hike by Fed

Bank of America Corp's (BAC) plan to boost its dividend in the second half of 2011 was rejected by the Federal Reserve, as per a company filing on Wednesday. This comes as a rude shock to BofA, particularly after many big banks got the much-awaited green signal from Fed to hike dividends, following the release of stress test results last week. The Fed allowed America’s strongest banks that passed the second round of stress tests to operate independently and freed them of government restrictions imposed during the height of the financial crisis in 2008. But the story was different for BofA. The largest U.S. bank by assets needs to show the Fed even more financial strength, lest it needs to combat another financial crisis. The Fed wants BofA to be at least as strong as its rivals that got the approval to deploy capital. Though jilted, this is not the... Read more