Change to Win Over a Ken Lewis Replacement

In the Bank of America drama playing out on Wall Street, it's now time to cue the activists.

And who should enter stage left but CtW Investment Group! The union group, which stands for Change to Win, sent a letter to Bank of America's lead director, O. Temple Sloan, demanding that the board fire chairman and CEO Ken Lewis, or else:

Removing Mr. Lewis is now a necessary prerequisite to restoring BAC's credibility with shareholders, regulators and the public. If the board refuses to remove Mr. Lewis, CtW will call on shareholders at Bank of America's Annual Meeting in April to vote against the re-election of Mr. Lewis, Lead Director Sloan and Corporate Governance Committee Chairman Thomas Ryan.

Like many shareholders, CtW is irked that Lewis failed to abandon its acquisition of Merrill Lynch after it realized the extent of its losses and that it allowed Merrill to pay out $3.6 billion in bonuses. If the bank doesn't fire Lewis, CtW threatens, it will storm its annual meeting in April and call on shareholders to do it for them.

CtW and Bank of America have been through something like this before, of course. Last year, the shareholder group made demands on many banks including BofA, Morgan Stanley, and Washington Mutual during proxy voting season.

Back then, it wanted accountability for the mortgage losses. Now it wants heads to roll.

Shareholder groups like CtW are rarely effective in garnering enough shareholder votes to accomplish their goals. But the objective is to raise awareness of the issues, and that is something CtW is expert at doing.

by Megan Barnett