Comerica: Financial Winner

In one of the most notable actions related to the financial crisis, former Countrywide Financial CEO Angelo Mozilo agreed in October 2010 to pay $22.5 million to "settle SEC charges that he and two other former Countrywide executives misled investors as the subprime mortgage crisis emerged." Mozilo also agreed to "$45 million in disgorgement of ill-gotten gains to settle the SEC's disclosure violation and insider trading charges against him."

Kaplan said that "Schapiro has had a lot of accomplishments, primarily in implementing Dodd-Frank and overseeing the markets in one of the most challenging periods for the economy."

House of Representatives Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said in a statement that "Chairman Mary Schapiro served the American people in exemplary fashion throughout her tenure at the Securities and Exchange Commission. Assuming her post in the aftermath of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, she acted swiftly and effectively to restore confidence in our financial markets, strengthen oversight of our financial system, and protect investors from the recklessness of some on Wall Street."

Bank of America (BAC) purchased Countrywide in 2008, and that wasn't the only acquisition that brought BAC under SEC scrutiny. In February 2010, Judge Jed S. Rakoff of the Southern District of New York approved the SEC's $150 million settlement with Bank of America over charges that the bank had mislead investors leading up to its acquisition of Merrill Lynch in January 2010. Rakoff had rejected an earlier, smaller settlement.

A short-term Fiscal Cliff trade.

With his firm's Washington Research Bureau saying that there is "a 65% probability that the U.S. economy is pushed over several of the initial Fiscal Cliffs," because of all the moving parts being discussed by President Obama and leaders in Congress, Guggenheim Securities analyst Marty Mosby on Monday made a "tactical trading sell" call on Bank of America, saying that the company's shares "could trade below $8 over the next three months if it becomes apparent that the U.S. economy is about to be pushed over several of the upcoming Fiscal Cliffs."

For long-term investors, Mosby has a 12-month rating of "Buy" for Bank of America, with a "$12 price target. Bank of America's shares pulled back by a nickel to close at $9.85 Friday. The shares have now returned 78% year-to-date, following a 58% drop in 2011. The shares trade for 0.7 times their reported Sept. 30 tangible book value of $13.48, and for 10 times the consensus 2013 EPS estimate of 97 cents a share, among analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. The consensus 2014 EPS estimate is $1.27.

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