Local governments pressured to battle banks

Welcome to the morning roundup. Here's a look at what's news in banking and finance.

Cities taking on banks. Local governments are facing increased pressure from residents to battle banks like Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, the Wall Street Journal says. A number of cities have considered resolutions to take money out of major banks and put them in smaller banks or create a municipal bank.

BofA stock may stall. Bank of America is expected to post strong fixed-income trading gains when it announces first quarter earnings in three weeks, but its overall earnings may not be enough to keep the bank's stock rallying past $10 per share, TheStreet.com says. Wall Street has been looking for the bank to display strong core earnings growth.

Dallas Fed bashes TBTF. The annual report for the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas contains a scathing indictment of "Too Big To Fail" banks and calls for their breakup, ProPublica reports. That's quite unusual for a Fed branch. In fact, a New York Times piece today explores how the Federal Reserve came to be so beholden to special interests and the banking lobby.