excellent – Dick Bove Sees Hope For Banks – Steve Forbes – The analyst whose call on BankAtlantic inspired a SLAPP lawsuit is optimistic about banking’s future – video at Forbes.com

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FICO Scores Show Flaws as U.S. Banks Cut Consumer Credit Lines – By Alexis Leondis -… “Reductions to a consumer’s line of credit based upon the lending institutions’ overall appetite for risk has little or no bearing on a consumer’s own risk of default,” said Gutierrez, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit. … – Bloomberg
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SoberLook – US Banks Will Roll the Wall of Maturing Debt – Author: Walter Kurtz – From NYT DealBook “Barclays Capital has analyzed financial company debt among United States institutions coming due over the next decade. During the rest of the year, for example, roughly $172 billion in debt will mature; in 2010, an additional $245 billion comes due. That amounts to about $25billion a month in debt rolling into a market with a shortage of buyers willing to invest in it.” - Riskcenter.com

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George Soros: Obama Team Falls Short in Financial System Overhaul – Posted by: Mara Der Hovanesian – George Soros spoke to a full house of bankers, lawyers, Wall Street types and journalists this morning at Bryant Park Grill behind the landmark New York Public Library this morning. … He says that political rhetoric and “story telling” is shielding Americans from the harsh truth that the financial system is still in dire need of a dramatic overhaul and that our living standards based on debt and over-spending must be changed. “The political discourse is effectively manipulating reality,” he said. “The electorate needs to be concerned with the truth.” … – BusinessWeek Blogs