Bank of AmericaÕ race to sell

In less than two years, Bank of America has sold 20 assets worth the market capitalization of Goldman Sachs. This comes as CEO Brian Moynihan has said that the company does not need to raise capital by issuing common shares, since the spigot of asset sales is still flowing. Of course, the face of the price tag on each sale is not representative of what BofA actually adds to capital, which is what regulators care about. Looking at recent deals shows that the net profit can vary widely. When it sold its $8.6 billion Canadian credit card portfolio to the TD Bank Group, Bank of America netted only $100 million, according to FBR Capital Markets analyst Paul Miller. (A spokesman for the bank disputes that figure, saying BoA netted $270 million under Basel I capital standards, or $477 million by Basel III standards by the sale.) By contrast, its $8.3 billion sale of its stake in China Construction Bank brought some $3.3 billion to the bank’s capital account.