It’s so late in the day that this is like posting yesterday’s news and given the subjects I suspect most of you have already read more than you care too about these two losers. Anyway here’s the basics of the BofA, Citi earnings debacles.

BofA lost $1.79 billion for the quarter but did turn a profit of $4 billion for the year. Unfortunately, losses at its newly acquired Merrill Lynch unit were $15.31 billion for the fourth quarter. This unfortunate event has caused the Treasury to advance another $20 million in Tarp aid and guarantee to absorb most of the next $118 billion in losses that the bank runs into.

Citi being Citi reported an $8.29 billion loss for the fourth quarter and racked up a nifty $18.72 billion loss for the whole year. Citi also announced that it will split itself in two with one part focusing on core banking operations and the other part devoted to asset management and consumer finance. Presumably they can then report losses for each separately and then it won’t sound so large.

If my stomach quits turning, I’ll probably write more about this over the weekend. Particularly, the Merrill/BofA/TARP fiasco and the questions it raises.

more: here and here