Questions Hang Over Merrill Deal (Excerpt)
Financial Times - January 28, 2009
by Greg Farrell, Michael Mackenzie and Aline van Duyn

"It is a "It is a mystery as to why Bank of America says it did not know about the losses at Merrill Lynch until [later in] December," said Janet Tavakoli, president of Tavakoli Structured Finance.

"There were huge markets upsets in October and November, and this affected many banks including Goldman Sachs and Citigroup. There are ample reasons to question why there was no discussion [at the shareholder meeting] about the potential risks of further significant writedowns in light of these market upsets," said Ms Tavakoli.



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Janet Tavakoli is the president of Tavakoli Structured Finance, a Chicago-based firm that provides consulting to financial institutions and institutional investors. Ms. Tavakoli has more than 20 years of experience in senior investment banking positions, trading, structuring and marketing structured financial products. She is a former adjunct professor of derivatives at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business. She is the author of: Credit Derivatives & Synthetic Structures (John Wiley & Sons, 1998, 2001), Structured Finance & Collateralized Debt Obligations (John Wiley & Sons, 2008), and
Dear Mr. Buffett: What An Investor Learns 1,269 Miles From Wall Street (John Wiley & Sons January 2009)

Clients of Tavakoli Structured Finance have the benefit of proprietary consultation, which is not available in any other paid or public forum. Clients also commission proprietary research and analysis.

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