Bank of America Merrill Lynch luring brokers with cash

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

BofA going after Morgan Stanley brokers. Top Bank of America Merrill Lynch wealth management regional managers are calling top Morgan Stanley performers, and offering them as much as $1.5 million to switch banks, The Wall Street Journal reports. Morgan Stanley has had a rough time lately, including the troubled Facebook IPO and an inconvenient computer system change.

Bank stock traders heading to worst year. Wall Street stock traders are set to have their worst year since 2006, with thin margins and volumes eating away at the market's rally, Bloomberg reports.

Task force sues JPMorgan. A mortgage fraud task force created earlier this year has brought its first suit, against JPMorgan Chase in New York state court, The New York Times reports. The suit says that Bear Sterns misrepresented the quality of loans in mortgage-backed securities it packaged pre-crisis.

BAC back to $10? Bank of America stock could get back to $10 per share, options traders are increasingly predicting with their bets, The Wall Street Journal says. The bank briefly topped the mark this spring, but hasn't closed above $10 since summer 2011.

Private equity spree ahead. Private equity firms are sitting on about a trillion dollars' worth of investor money that will have to be returned if the companies don't go on a shopping spree, The New York Times reports. More than $200 billion needs to be spent in the next 12 months alone.