On August 25, 2011, CNBC's Drew Sandholm noted that "[d]espite having recently told investors Bank of America ... doesn't need to raise capital, CEO Brian Moynihan will accept $5 billion in capital from famed investor Warren Buffett. The deal not only surprised the Fast Money traders on Thursday, it also caused them to question Moynihan's credibility."
On September 12, 2011, CNBC's John Carney noted that Moynihan had "once again laid out his company's plan to meet regulatory capital requirements and denied that the bank will have to issue new stock to raise capital ... [Moynihan] says that Warren Buffett's $5 billion counts as Tier 1 Capital. But the markets have largely ignored the investment, most likely because it looks a lot more like debt than capital."
On October 26, 2011, Huffington Post blogger Jillian Berman noted that BoA "has also been hammered in the stock and bonds markets" and "was the worst performer in the Dow Jones Industrial Average for two-quarters straight ... while Moody's downgraded the bank last month." She added while Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase's CEO, received a $19 million raise in 2010, Moynihan's salary stayed level at $950,000.
On December 27, 2011, Julia LaRoche wrote in Business Insider that Moynihan "admitted the proposed $5 monthly fee for debit card users wasn't the best idea". She quoted him as saying: "We struck a chord with customers that no one anticipated. We learned our lesson and stopped it." It was later reported that the failed fee plan led to a 20% increase in account closures during the last three months of 2011.