Thanks Visa!

Boy that Visa IPO sure came at a good time. Several banks reported gains today on the sale of at least part of their share of the Visa IPO:

Marshall & Ilsley: Reported a $39 million gain from the sale of 39% of their Visa stake.

US Bancorp: Reported a $492 million dollar gain from the sale of Visa shares.

Northern Trust: Reported a $244 million gain from the sale of Visa shares.

M&T Bank: $33 million pre tax gain from sale of Visa shares.

Regions Financial: $91.2 million gain from sale of Visa shares.

I wonder what they'll do next quarter to bolster the balance sheet? Sell more Visa shares? It doesn't appear that any of these banks sold their entire position and indeed some of the shares may be restricted (I don't know),but if these guys have more troubles ahead, I wouldn't want to own Visa shares.