Bank of America

By Shelley Smith

By Megan Murphy, Justin Baer, Francesco Guerrera, Patrick Jenkins, Jeremy Grant, Martin Arnold and Sam Jones

Few fund managers have been spared the ignominy of writing occasionally apologetic letters to investors. Temasek, Singapore’s investment agency, has an enviable track record and, with the government its sole shareholder, has rarely had to face tough public questioning. Not any more.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- It's something any bank would demand to know before handing out a loan: Where's the money going?

But after receiving billions in aid from U.S. taxpayers, the nation's largest banks say they can't track exactly how they're spending the money or they simply refuse to discuss it.

"We've lent some of it. We've not lent some of it. We've not given any accounting of, 'Here's how we're doing it,'" said Thomas Kelly, a spokesman for JPMorgan Chase, which received $25 billion in emergency bailout money. "We have not disclosed that to the public. We're declining to."