Citibank and BofA...to be closed soon?by KStreetProjector
Fri Feb 20, 2009 at 12:56:57 PM PST
I just had a very disturbing conference call. Or rather, had a very non-call
It reminds me of a meeting I didn't have in last fall, or more accurately a meeting I had with myself, as no one else was left standing.
And if I am correct about the meaning of the meeting I just had.
Citibank and Bank of America are insolvent, and are being "swedished" aka disolved and sold off, coming this weekend.
What happenned last fall?
Let's start by what the CEO of Fortis said on Friday Sept. 26th.
'No chance' of Fortis going bankrupt: CEO
Sep 26, 2008
THE HAGUE (AFP) — There is "not a single chance" that Belgian-Dutch banking and insurance group Fortis will go bankrupt, its chief executive officer Herman Verwilst said Friday.
"There is not one single chance that we will face issues in that respect," he said when asked of the possibility of bankruptcy during a telephone conference with media.
Americans may not know, Fortis was at the time one of the larger EU banks on the 26th. And i was working on a project for a client which had extensive needs to integrate with Fortis systems. In fact Fortis was the hub of the entire system. We all depended on Fortis.
The project reached a phase where weekly conference calls were needed. We had a strange one on the 23rd. I was up at 7AM for it, so were ten others. Most of those on the call being EU based. None of the critical Fortis IT team were on the call. Somebody was taking notes for them, who apparently had not been briefed that in fact...Fortis ran this call. We all reported in, briefly, what we had done, and we were told we would be emailed updates on the next call. Rumors of problems abounded around Fortis.
One of the participants on the call said: Well, Fortis has some major issues this week. It was wierd. I had that "feeling" like...we would never finish this project.
Which brings me to the 30th. I got up at 7AM. Dialed in. I was the only one on the call for five minutes. Finally someone else called in. We sat there for two minutes chatting. Then we both got a wierd feeling.
"Did you check your email? Did they move the meeting?" I checked...remember it's 7AM. I am taking this call from home while making coffee...and there it was...
Fortis was gone. Nationalized overnight. I should have checked my email sooner.
The project was scrapped.
Which brings me to the call I just had. A long scheduled call. No one on the call from BofA. And only a junior level guy I have never heard before from Citibank who had no clue about the nature of the project and didn't even understand some the subjects on the agenda for the call. I asked what his background is.
He's a lawyer.
I know that this site demands extraordinary proof for extraordinary claims. And this is not much proof.
But I am fully expecting, sometime in the next few days to find out we are following the Sweden model. And frankly, it's good. Every one of the Super Banks should be dismantled. They do not create value. They make nothing. We need to get back to bankers who understand how to create long term stability for the building of companies who make things, and for the building of things with long term value.
They have done nothing for the last decade but figure out more and more bizarre ways to "mark" value and sell "product".
Billmon nailed it earlier.
I will make this tag: Speculation. And will post it at precisely 4PM. Close of trading.
That same strange feeling the JigIsUp I had when Fortis vanished is back.
LINK WITH POLL:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/2/20/142628/784/866/699841
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