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What Awaits the New Bank of America CEO

It is becoming increasingly evident that the person who succeeds retiring Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis will have his (or her) hands full-especially when it comes to mending relationships with regulators and investors following the much maligned Merrill Lynch acquisition.

It is becoming increasingly evident that the person who succeeds retiring Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis will have his (or her) hands full-especially when it comes to mending relationships with regulators and investors following the much maligned Merrill Lynch acquisition.According to the Associated Press, analysts don't have a strong consensus about who will become CEO when Lewis leaves Dec. 31. The Bank of America executive mentioned most often is Brian Moynihan, who heads the company's consumer and small business banking division. But analysts say former CEOs of banks including Wachovia Corp. could also be candidates, noted the AP.

Among the daunting tasks to be faced by the new CEO: juggling regulatory investigations into the Merrill acquisition, including federal and state demands for information about the billions in bonuses paid to Merrill employees just before the acquisition was sealed; returning to a good relationship with regulators while improving its standing with members of Congress-the bank's loudest critics; and find a way to repay $45 billion in bailout funds to the federal government.

The AP said some analysts think BofA may consider appointing an interim CEO "because some candidates might not want to work for the company for more than a few years. The timing of Lewis' retirement might have caught the bank off guard, forcing the board to move quicker than expected," Jefferson Harralson, an analyst at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, told the AP.

For the entire article, see Bank of America's new CEO to face big challenges.

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