From a recent Mad Money show: "No, we're not going to go there. I'm going to stick with my Fortress Four banks Wells Fargo , US Bancorp , Bank of America (BAC) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM)."

Wachovia (WB), Washington Mutual (WM), now Sovereign (SOV) with Santander (STD), which I had no idea was healthy enough to buy anything but can put the bad loans to TARP like all of the others.

Cramer: Too Early to Buy Regional Banks:
Jim Cramer explains why the market uncertainty makes it too early to buy regional banks.

Click here to watch the video.

From a recent Mad Money show: "I think Sovereign needs everything to go right for them to make money and everything is clearly not going right in the banking industry."

due for a pop

Sovereign Bancorp (SOV) was upgraded from Market Perform to Outperform at KBW. $11 price target. SOV was upgraded following the recent $1.9 billion capital raise.

Sovereign Bancorp (SOV) was upgraded to Market Perform, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods said. $1 billion to $2 billion capital raise appears to be in the works. $7 price target.

Sovereign Bancorp (SOV) was downgraded to Underperform, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods said. CFO departure adds risk to the model. $10 price target.

Sovereign Bancorp (SOV) was downgraded from Outperform to Underperform, Friedman, Billings Ramsey said. The company has outsized exposure to consumer loans. $14 price target.

Sovereign Bancorp (SOV) was upgraded from Hold to Buy, Citigroup said. $22 price target. Estimates cut, but investors do not understand the bank's credit quality, and mortgage exposure is well reserved.

poor mgt

10Q Detective: The only certainty is Mr. Sidhu's severance package, which entitles him to benefits of approximately $13 million (which excludes an additional $37.4 million in exercisable stock options).
<a href="
http://thevalueblogs.com/10q-detective/sovereign-bancorp-ceo-doesn%e2%80%99t-deliver-the-goods-but-walks-away-with-them"> Link</a>