Bank of America Corp. Chief Executive Ken Lewis plans to exercise 4.08 million options to buy BofA shares through the end of the year.

As of Friday's closing price of $51.66 per share, the shares were worth nearly $211 million.

After paying taxes and acquisition costs, Lewis will retain all of the resulting shares and receive no additional cash.

The option exercises are scheduled to begin in late August and occur monthly through December.

As of Dec. 31, Lewis owned 6.6 million shares of BofA stock.

BofA's stock fell 21 cents in Monday morning trading to $51.45 per share.

Charlotte-based BofA (NYSE:BAC - News) is the nation's second-largest banking company, behind Citigroup. BofA operates more than 5,700 retail banking offices and some 16,700 ATMs.

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Published July 31, 2006 by the Charlotte Business Journal

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