Executives from Merrill Lynch and private equity powerhouse TPG recently met in New York, according to the Financial Times. The participants included the bigs--John Thain, Merrill Lynch CEO and David Bonderman, TPG co-founder--among others. Apparently, Bonderman offered to pony up some capital not too long ago, though terms were not agreed to. Merrill Lynch ended up with a big investment from Temasek, the Singapore sovereign wealth fund, and the Kuwait Investment Authority. It's fair to say that top banks have to go on the hunt for more. TPG may end up being a big investor via preferred shares. Then again, maybe they are cooking up something more ambitious.  

For more:
- here's the Financial Times article