WFC

Bank of America Corp. (NYSE:BAC), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) and Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE:WFC) have already paid up, returning more than $180 billion in bailout funds. Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is on mission to get the U.S. government repaid in full for the funds it put into the country’s lenders.

Holy Burritos Batman! Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG) are almost $100 per share. Chipotle shares touched a new 52-week high of $99.71 before backing down to $99.35 heading into the close. Still, shares are almost at the precious $100 level and the party could just be getting started thanks to Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC).

Nomi Prins breaks down big banks' SEC filings, including Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C), Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) and Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC).  Seems she is reviewing them for accounting games, and given that taxpayers are on the hook for hundreds of billions, wonders if it is worse than Enron?

If you are sitting on the sidelines, paralyzed with fear about investing in some big banks, then think about this…  JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM), Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC), and Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) are the leading commercial banks in America. 

The other day, we posted an article about E TRADE Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:ETFC) being a takeover candidate for TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. (NASDAQ:AMTD).  Jason Schwarz makes a good point that a larger bank like Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) or JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) might be better suited for assimilating Etrade. 

As Fannie Mae moves to start a program to lease homes back to homeowners near foreclosure, banks like Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C), Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) and Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) will benefit. 

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) now faces a dilemma. It wants to return $25B in bailout funds, but do so while keeping its Tier 1 ratio up means either diluting shareholders or paying hefty government dividends.

Both Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) and McDonald's Corporation (NYSE:MCD) are set to report Q3 earnings tomorrow morning, banking and burgers have never sounded so good together.

Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) went to bat today for large U.S. Banks, their report showed service industries returned to growth after 11 months of contraction.  Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) is the big winner up 6%, but holding its own this morning are Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) and Citigroup (NYSE:C) both up nearly 3%.

The FDIC may cash in on one of the biggest acts of 'Bank Fee Karma' ever, under the current assessment and each bank’s deposits, Wells Fargo & Co.'s (NYSE:WFC) fee may be $3.2, JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) may pay $2.4 billion, Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) $1.2 billion and Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) may owe $3.5 billion under the FDIC proposal for banks to prepay three years of premiums.