Bank of America Not Considering a Merger

With the economy struggling, many larger banks in the U.S. continue to absorb smaller, weaker banks to make up for the surplus in banks. According to Bank of America’s CEO, Kenneth Lewis, Bank of America will not be among the financial institutions that actively seek mergers.

This revelation from Lewis comes at a time when huge bank mergers have become commonplace, such as Wells Fargo’s acquisition of Wachovia last year and JPMorgan Chase’s acquisition of Washington Mutual. Although Bank of America recently acquired Countrywide Financial and Merrill Lynch, the financial giant will not pursue a merger with another bank.

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The recent financial stress test led regulators to urge that Bank of America raise $33.9 billion, the highest amount out of all of the financial institutions tested, but Lewis disputed the validity of the test. According to him, the stress test depicted a much worse scenario than would ever be anticipated and that the answer is not to raise more capital, but to diversify existing capital.

With Kenneth Lewis remaining cautiously optimistic about the economy’s future, Bank of America will remain its own entity for now.