The news on October 15th at Bank of America (BofA) CEO Ken Lewis had been pressured into forfeiting his 2009 salary by the US Treasury's ‘special master' for compensation horrified Wall Street and crowned a turbulent 10 months for the bank. Since completing its rescue acquisition of Merrill Lynch, taking $45bn from the government to shore up its own capital base and to help absorb Merrill's 2008 losses, Bank of America has experienced unprecedented government intervention, and aggressive state and Federal regulatory scrutiny. Mr Lewis has felt the full brunt of the media and regulatory spotlight. Early in the year he was forced to step down as chairman after he and the board of directors were accused of misleading investors about Merrill's mounting losses and the agreement to pay bonuses to Merrill executives. In early September, Federal district judge Jed Rakoff took the unusual step of rejecting a $33m settlement levied by the Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC), saying that BofA should face a full investigation, not get a "slap on the wrist".On September 30, in what many assume to be an attempt to take the heat off the bank, Mr Lewis surprised the markets - and the bank - by announcing his early retirement by the end of the year. New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo immediately quashed any notion that he would back down, saying Mr Lewis's retirement would have "no impact" on his investigation.If the Merrill acquisition has brought Mr Lewis's tenure at BofA to an untimely end, the unwelcome glare of the media and regulators has also exacerbated tensions within the new organisation. The bank has had a rough year, losing a lot of key bankers and fighting fires as much as managing the business. Yet league and revenue tables show that the investment bank has held up surprisingly well, and the combined platform is getting business that BofA alone could only have dreamed of. Much remains to be done and as a whole, the franchise remains heavily exposed to the nervous US consumer, but is Bank of America Merrill Lynch over the worst?
