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Ken Lewis announced yesterday that he would be resigning as CEO of Bank of America effective at the end of the year. At the time of the announcement, there was no replacement in mind.

According to CreditSights Inc. analyst David Hendler had this to say about Lewis, “He’s drifting out to sea like a dying Eskimo, knowing the company can do better and thrive without him.”

Lewis took over as CEO of Bank of America in 2001 and since that time the bank has tripled in size and become the biggest United States lender by assets and deposits. One of the biggest problems that has arisen since he had become CEO is in the past year during the financial crisis, BofA made some pretty bad acquisition decisions. Merrill Lynch has really been a downer for the company and it also acquired subprime lender Countrywide Financial. During his time at the company, he spent over $130 billion on acquisitions alone.

Bank of America has had to find itself coming into its own over this financial fiasco and maybe Ken Lewis can’t see himself at the helm anymore. The rules of banking have changed because of what is happening and definitely what has happened. He was one of the last CEO’s of a major bank (I’m talking about the banks that were deemed too large to fail) to remain in control.

Lewis has also been the target of all the anger people have at the merger with Merrill Lynch and all the controversy that stemmed from it.

While I believe that the company is just as likely to make poor decisions with anyone in control, perhaps a new pair of eyes or someone with a fresh perspective will be able to do more good for the company. After all, Bank of America is still one of the largest banks in the United States (if not the largest) and it can be good again. It just needs to take care of its customers and make sure that it isn’t hemorrhaging money like it has been in the past year.

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Jeremy

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