In the wake of the economic downfall, and the government having to bailout financial super houses last year, regulators are trying their best to ensure it does not happen again.

Full service brokerages such as Merrill Lynch (owned by Bank Of America Corp.), UBS and Morgan Stanley Smith Barney may have to up their efforts if they want to retain their clients.

Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management announced today the launch of the new My Retirement Income management feature that combines Merrill Lynch's Retirement Income Service with the retail banking convenience of Bank of America.

Bank of America's Ken Lewis is under fire again. Shortly after being stripped of his position as Chairman of the Board earlier this year, he faces yet another controversial issue that could further undermine shareholder confidence in him.

Although he remains CEO of Bank of America, Kenneth D. Lewis was stripped of his position as BofA's Chairman of the Board in a meeting attended by some 2,200 shareholders last Wednesday. The decision was reached after a close vote of 50.34% to 49.66%, to separate the duties of the chairman from that of CEO.

Top talents of the banking industry, mostly in the investment banking divisions, are starting an exodus out of the country's big banks into smaller investment firms. These departures come in the wake of the US government's plans for tighter restrictions and amidst calls for limits on executive compensation for banks that received more than $5 billion in government assistance

Even with the New Year revelry still ringing in our ears, one can never fully take on the challenges that lie ahead in 2009 without reflecting on the year just gone. Certainly, the year 2008 will go down in history as the start of one of the country’s worst recessions since the Great Depression in the 1940’s. Bankruptcies plagued banks and investment houses, and many industries, most notable of which are the finance and auto industries, were now pinning their hopes of surviving more on the bailouts that the government was handing out like candy, than on the likelihood that the economy would put itself right in the near future.

According to the latest projections, more than 250,000 jobs will be lost in the American banking sector due to the ever deepening economic turmoil.   That Merrill Lynch, which in 2008 held assets in excess of $1 trillion, can be pulled under the leaking umbrella of Bank of America in search of shelter, is a telling indicator indeed of the how deep the wounds inflicted on the financial sector have become.  

Since the burst of the housing bubble late last year, the credit markets, the finance industry, and the US economy in general, have gone on a constant and speedy downturn.  

In an effort to stop the economy from completely reeling out of the control, leaving in its wake a slew of bad debts, failed banks, job losses, frozen consumer spending, and just recently, an auto industry on the brink of collapse, the US government has released wave after wave of rescue packages in the form of direct investment into banks, short-term loans to financial institutions, and guarantees of real-estate backed loans. 

Washington D.C. is pouring out money like there’s no tomorrow. Since the start of this crisis, the government has already apportioned a jaw-dropping $7 trillion on pledges of financial backing and bailout commitments.  

Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase -- two of the US' top banks, and now both in the limelight. Aside from having equally received a huge chunk of the $700 billion government bailout plan, $25 billion each to be exact, the two banks have also been rather busy lately expanding their respective financial empires with a series of takeovers and mergers involving no less than once-mighty names in the banking and investments industry: Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual, Countrywide Financial and Merrill Lynch.