There's news of a push to deregulate from Bank of America and re-branding from Citigroup. Citing a report in the Wall Street Journal, Reuters reports that BofA has begun a push to roll back the rule that limits any one bank to a maximum of 10 percent of the nation's deposits.

It's main argument is that the rule makes U.S. banks artificially small and makes them vulnerable to foreign takeover. Whatever the strength of that argument may be, citing support from the North Carolina Bankers Association, where BofA and Wachovia are both headquartered, hardly constitutes broad support.

The bank downplayed the effort calling it "educational" but the roll-back would pit regional and local banks against the big boys, so expect to see a lot of pushback from Congress if this movement looks likely to succeed.

And that other big boy with a presence at the Lakes, Citigrooup is changing its moniker to "Citi," reports the New York Times. Whatever happened to those old-fashioned bank names that were stuck on the front of granite-columned buildings that gave us a real sense of security? Seems now they want some vague, if not toucy-feely, name that will almost make us think we're not dealing with the bank. The four-letter non-descriptive brand has already been pioneered by Washington Mutual, which is rebranding as WaMu. Whatever the brand and the financial services provided by a conglomerate, sometimes a bank is still a bank.