Since April, 10 board members of Bank of America Corp. has left the company, bringing the existing number of directors to 13 members. All of this comes from accepting $45 billion in taxpayer aid.
The latest board members to leave include William Barnet III, Gary Countryman and John T. Collins. While the reasons for the three leaving weren’t given in the filing, it was said they didn’t leave over any disagreements with the company leadership.
All three of the men were board members at FleetBoston Financial Corp., and became part of Bank of America when they acquired it in 2004.
After criticism concerning the acquisition of Merrill Lynch, Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Lewis had the title of chairman taken away, although he is still running the company as CEO. He has said he will remain on as CEO until the bank is earning approximately $30 billion a year.
Other directors that have stepped down this year are Meredith Spangler, who had to leave, as she reached the age limit of 72. O. Temple Sloan, Admiral Joseph Prueher, General Tommy R. Franks, Jackie M. Ward and Patricia E. Mitchell are the others.
Later in the year Bank of America says they’ll add more board members.
After getting the public funds, lawmakers have pressured the bank to make major changes in the board in changing the majority of the old directors. Other requirements are to take care of the existing problems and bet a better hold on risk and liquidity management. Going over succession was also part of the directive handed down as a condition of the bailout.
As of May, the company was found to have the possibility of losing up to $136 billion through 2010, which pressured them to have to raise $34 billion in cash.
