Business this week

Bank of America said it had raised $13.5 billion since May 8th by issuing common shares. Together with the $7.3 billion it obtained by selling part of its stake in China Construction Bank, BofA is more than half way to reaching the $33.9 billion that the American government’s stress tests found it needs to guard itself against a severe downturn. Timothy Geithner informed Congress that those banks deemed by the stress tests to require extra capital had so far raised $48 billion of the $75 billion stipulated. The treasury secretary also revealed that $124 billion was still on hand in the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Programme, and that a public-private partnership to help banks rid themselves of toxic assets would be in place by July. ... (link)