Will 2010 present a big opportunity for the banking industry to ride a recovering economy? Will it be able to put the pain of the past two years behind it? My sense is that the big bailouts (bailout news) are over, though we'll see plenty of action at the regional level.

Still, it will be a tough year for banks from an earnings point of view. Most of them face very tough comparisons with 2009, notes Meredith Whitney (Meredith Whitney news), whose become a media fixture. She's been pretty prescient as of late. Last year was something of a surprise in that the profits from trading of fixed income, currency and commodities went through the roof. But that will moderate, and will not likely be made up completely by investment banking revenue and core lending (lending portfolio will not recover anytime soon).

She may be a bit overly bearish; her estimates are roughly 30 percent below the consensus. Is there a gem in this rough. She thinks Bank of America (BAC) may be a least-worst sort of stock. She says it has a lot of "in the money" assets it could and probably will sell. 

For more:
- here's a CNBC video

Related Articles:
More analysts open their own shops
Meredith Whitney is hiring
How did top women execs fare in the crunch?
Whitney goes neutral on Goldman Sachs
Whitney: "Early on in bank closures"