Banks may need 140 bill to cushion bond insurers

--Banks may need to raise as much as$143 billion to meet regulators' requirements should rating firms downgrade bond insurers, Barclays Capital analysts said. --Banks will need at least $22 billion if bonds covered by insurers led by MBIA Inc. and Ambac Financial Group Inc. are cutone level from AAA, and six times more for downgrades by foursteps to A, Paul Fenner-Leitao wrote in a report publishedtoday. Banks own $820 billion of structured securitiesguaranteed by bond insurers, the report said.