More banks refuse California IOUs

SACRAMENTO, July 11 (UPI) -- Four major banks, including Bank of America Corp., say they stopped accepting IOUs Saturday from the cash-strapped state of California.

Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co., and Union Bank of California said they no longer would redeem the state IOUs for cash value, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The state expects to issue nearly $3 billion worth of interest-bearing IOUs this month as the Legislature struggles to close a $26 billion budget deficit.

Citibank and Bank of the West, meanwhile, agreed Friday to honor the IOUs. Bank of the West said it would take the IOUs indefinitely and Citibank said it would accept them until July 17, the Times reported.

"We do not want to penalize our business and consumer customers for the impasse in Sacramento," Rebecca Macieira-Kaufmann, president of Citibank California, said in a statement Friday.