Paulson's Big Bank Bet

No, not that Paulson .. John Paulson, the billionaire hedge fund manager who made massive money betting against the housing market.

Paulson is now betting on many big banks, including Bank of America in a big way.

According to his firm's latest SEC filing (as of June 30th), Paulson reported holdings of:

168 million shares of Bank of America (BAC)

35 million shares of Regions Financial (RF)

5 million shares of Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB)

2 million shares of Goldman Sachs (GS)

1.5 million shares of State Street Bank (STT)

Most of these positions look new as of the 2nd quarter.   Because of the lag between filing and the SEC reporting, Paulson could have trimmed some of these holdings in the past 6 weeks ... but still very interesting to see that the man who is arguably the most powerful hedge fund manager in America is making a bullish call on these banks.

That stake in Bank of America is worth more than $2 billion dollars by itself!