BofA CEO Kenneth Lewis to step down
By PBN Staff
(Updated, Oct. 1)
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Bank of America Corp. CEO Kenneth D. Lewis will step down at the end of this year, the bank announced in a statement late Wednesday. A successor has not been named.
Lewis will also retire as a director, the bank said. Shareholders stripped him of the bank’s chairmanship earlier this year.
Lewis, 62, has been under fire for the past year after Bank of America’s troubled purchases of Countrywide Financial Corp. and Merrill Lynch & Co., as well as its first quarterly loss in 17 years. The bank has received $45 billion from the federal government since last year to shore up its balance sheet.
Lewis on Wednesday defended his decisions in a memo to employees. “I am gratified that even some of the critics of our acquisition of Merrill Lynch have come to acknowledge how well the deal is working out for our clients,” he said. “This journey has been a rocky one and not for the faint of heart, but perseverance is paying off.”
Lewis has worked at the company for four decades, and was CEO for the last eight. He helped build Bank of America into one of the nation’s largest financial institutions through more than $130 billion in acquisitions. The bank more than tripled in size during Lewis’ tenure at the helm.
CreditSights Inc. analyst David Hendler told Bloomberg News that the controversy surrounding Lewis’ decisions over the last year had made him a distraction for the bank. “He’s drifting out to sea like a dying Eskimo, knowing the company can do better and thrive without him,” Hendler said.