Bank chiefs seek to reassure investors

The heads of JPMorgan, Bank of America and Citigroup avow that a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis is not looming. The Dow falls 520 points.

By Nathaniel Popper and E. Scott Reckard,
Los Angeles Times
12:04 AM PDT, August 11, 2011

Wall Street retreated back into panic mode amid growing worries about the economy, prompting leaders of major U.S. banks to take the rare step of assuring jittery investors that a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis was not about to happen.

The chief executives of the nation's three biggest banks — JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. — are fighting speculation that they are in trouble and leading the nation back into recession.

Banking stocks have recently slumped to levels not seen since Wall Street's meltdown three years ago, when the industry received a massive government bailout to avert collapse. They also led the market's huge dive Wednesday, when the Dow Jones industrial average plunged 520 points.

During the stock market's rout, a leading index of bank stocks dropped 7.1% — far outpacing the Dow's 4.6% slide. Over the last month, banks performed worse than any other sector in the broad Standard & Poor's 500 index, dropping 22%.

(More here.)