Today the NYTime's Dealbook blog reports that BofA is likely to bid for Barclay's in order to further its international expansion strategy. The source is a Merrill Lynch analyst report released today, excerpted as follows:

Barclays would give BAC the following: 1) a large international
presence in fixed-income-oriented inv. banking including corporate and
high yield debt, structured products, derivatives, syndicated lending
and treasury mgmt services (all of which would be a strong compliment
to BAC’s U.S. investment bank); 2) the leading UK credit card business
(which could be merged with BAC’s UK card business); 3) a large UK
retail and commercial bank (with significant efficiency improvement
opportunities), and 4) the leading global indexed asset mgmt and ETF
business.

More commentary and links to articles on DealBook, here.