INSTANT VIEW: Bernanke under fire in Congressional testimony

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Thursday pushed back hard against accusations the Fed threatened Bank of America executives if they halted a merger with Merrill Lynch or pressured them to withhold bad news about the troubled investment bank.

KEY POINTS: * "Neither I nor any member of the Federal Reserve ever directed, instructed, or advised Bank of America to withhold from public disclosure any information relating to Merrill Lynch," Bernanke told the House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee. * The top Republican on the panel, Representative Darrell Issa, on Wednesday charged the Fed had covered up its involvement in the merger and "deliberately hid" important details from other federal regulators.

COMMENTS:

CUMMINS CATHERWOOD, MANAGING DIRECTOR, BOENNING AND SCATTERGOOD, WEST CONSHOHOCKEN, PENNSYLVANIA:

"He's put a lot of miles on the vehicle in these last few months. I don't know what to say except that it is part of the job. He is absolutely a lightning rod for all of this stuff. But that's what he signed up for. Personally, I think he's done an OK job. That whole Bank of America thing smells a little funny, but we weren't in the back room over the weekend when all that went down. We were in extremely tenuous times at that point -- there was no confidence in the market. Those were weird times and everybody was nervous because we never did this stuff before and the implications could have been horrendous."

DAVID DIETZE, CHIEF INVESTMENT STRATEGIST, POINT VIEW FINANCIAL SERVICES, SUMMIT, NEW JERSEY:

"He appears to be handling the questions pretty well. I am certainly rooting for him because I think his track record overall has been excellent. They were in the economic equivalent of a war and there was a lot of pressure to not have this deal unravel, not let the markets take it on the chin with a broken deal and key 'too big to fail' companies being in tatters. It was a heated time. He is parsing his words very very carefully."

MIKE O'ROURKE, CHIEF MARKET STRATEGIST, BTIG, NEW YORK:

"Everyone sees the reality through their own prism, and Chairman Bernanke is sticking to the point that... by breaking the deal they were posing a risk to the system and he was, and we all know it. I think everyone knows the reality of the situation and it's not as clean-cut as you'd like it to be.

"I think there's a distinct concern ever since the election -- everyone widely believes his job was promised to Larry Summers -- but this is the type of environment that if you believe you have a good Fed chairman at the helm that he should be reappointed. Not getting vote of confidence from the president yet, there's always been always a doubt in the market's mind that he could keep that option open for Summers should recovery not take hold.

"I think more people will come to Bernanke's defense because he has done the right things. Earlier on, the president probably had to the end of the summer to make a final decision and I think you're going to see more people come to Bernanke's defense.

"Right now, it hurts him, but in the end it's going to work to his strengths because we'll start thinking about a world and economy without Ben Bernanke and I think most investors and the informed public won't like change in this type of environment, and if the signal comes down that he won't get reappointed, definitely it would be pretty ugly for this market and the economy ultimately."

MICHAEL FEROLI, ECONOMIST, JPMORGAN, NEW YORK:

"So far it's a little bit discouraging. Congressmen are trying to take pot shots at Bernanke. But I think he's holding his own. My subjective probability on the chances of his reappointment has fallen but I still think it's above 50 percent, while it may be expedient now for Washington to blame not reappointing him would send a bad signal. It would shake some confidence in the markets, especially with foreign investors. Anyone they put in there would be seen as a White House plant."

CHRIS RUPKEY, CHIEF FINANCIAL ECONOMIST, BANK OF TOKYO/MITSUBISHI UFJ, NEW YORK:

"People are transfixed here watching it. The market is quiet today anyway. At the moment it looks like it's something of a history of what transpired back in October, November and December. Bernanke does seem to be under some pressure by members of the committee. People are a little surprised at the aggressiveness of this. In the market we'd like to think this is a sideshow. It seems to be the Republicans doing most of the aggressive questioning.