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