This announcement underscores the continued financial...

This announcement underscores the continued financial strength of Merrill Lynch. Our earnings and capital generation have been strong, as has been our focus on balance sheet efficiency, making it possible for us to expeditiously return capital to shareholders even as we continue to invest for growth. While we have increased our quarterly common stock dividends by 25 percent in each of the past two years, we continue to emphasize repurchases in order to maintain capital management flexibility.