Bailouts, Bank Bailout | featured news

Bank of America Corp and Citigroup Inc shares plummeted for a sixth straight day on Friday, hammered by fears that the U.S. government could nationalize the banks, wiping out shareholders.

Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, whose bank received $25 billion in bailout funds from the government, refused to tell CNBC anchor Melissa Francis how the bank is performing this quarter.

"Can you tell me how this quarter is doing for JPMorgan?" Francis asked.

Dimon's brief response: "I can't."

House members want the eight big banks to increase their lending and explain what they are doing with the taxpayers’ money.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will lay out a bank-rescue plan on Tuesday that will rely on public and private funds to take $500 billion of bad assets off banks' books, sources said.

The $700 billion financial-sector bailout is likely to rely on a broad range of tools, from injecting additional capital into banks and helping homeowners avoid foreclosure to expanding the roles of the Fed, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the FDIC.

Wall Street bankers, with their $18 billion in bonuses, private jets and gaudy conferences, are causing headaches for the GOP.

President Obama has proposed capping compensation for executives at banks that take taxpayer bailout money at $500,000. Republicans hate the idea, which puts them uncomfortably on the side of people currently about as popular as child-porn producers and subprime mortgage brokers.

Lawmakers and consumer groups skewered the San Francisco bank, which got a $25-billion infusion from the government, after they heard about the event to fete top mortgage salespeople.

Cries for post-bailout accountability resounded at the biggest banks Tuesday as Citigroup Inc. issued a 43-page defense of its lending, a consumer group lashed Bank of America Corp. for throwing a $10-million Super Bowl bash, and Wells Fargo & Co.

Banks collecting billions of dollars in federal bailout money sought government permission to bring thousands of foreign workers to the U.S. for high-paying jobs, according to an Associated Press review of visa applications.

At least 50 banks have rejected funds from the Treasury over concerns that tougher restrictions may be imposed.

At banks that are receiving federal bailout money nearly nine out of every 10 of the most senior executives from 2006 are still on the job, according to an Associated Press analysis of  documents.