Kenneth Lewis | featured news

Kenneth D. Lewis, the Bank of America chief, told a House panel that he was pressured by the government late last year to purchase Merrill Lynch.

Shareholders stripped Kenneth D. Lewis of his chairman’s title in a vote that may mark the beginning of the end of his leadership at the embattled bank.

Can Kenneth D. Lewis hold on at Bank of America? The answer to that question, much anticipated on Wall Street, is expected to arrive Wednesday, when Bank of America shareholders are to vote on whether Mr. Lewis, the bank's the embattled chairman and chief executive, will remain on the board.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and then-Treasury Department chief Henry Paulson pressured Bank of America Corp. to not discuss its increasingly troubled plan to buy Merrill Lynch & Co. -- a deal that later triggered a government bailout of BofA -- according to testimony by Kenneth Lewis, the bank's chief executive.

Two influential investor advisory groups sharply rebuked Bank of America Corp Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis over his handling of the buyout of ailing Merrill Lynch & Co, recommending he be thrown off the bank's board at its upcoming annual meeting.