DOW JONES NEWSWIRES The California Public Employees' Retirement System said Tuesday it will vote against the re-election of all 18 Bank of America Corp. (BAC) directors, including Chairman and Chief Executive Ken Lewis. Bank of America will hold its annual meeting Wednesday, and management has been under pressure lately as more and more shareholders express their displeasure with the bank's current leaders. Calpers, which owns 22.7 million Bank of America shares, joins a number of other pension funds in advocating for a boardroom make over. "The entire board failed in its duties to shareowners and should be removed," said Calpers Board President Rob Feckner. Several proxy-advisory firms, including Egan-Jones, have advised shareholders to vote against Lewis and other directors, but haven't gone so far as to say shareholders should oust all 18. Bank of America's shares were recently down 8% at $8.21 on a report in The Wall Street Journal that regulators have told Bank of America and Citigroup Inc. (C) they may need to raise more capital, based on early results of the government's so-called stress tests of lenders. Calpers and others have said Lewis and other directors failed to disclose information to shareholders in connection with the bank's purchase of Merrill Lynch & Co. at the end of last year. In a recent deposition to the New York attorney general, Lewis suggested he wanted to warn shareholders about Merrill's deteriorating condition before they voted on a deal to buy the investment bank, but that the decision wasn't up to him. Bank of America has already taken $45 billion in capital from the federal government, some of it to help the bank cover losses stemming from its purchase of Merrill. Shareholders have also been up in arms about $3.6 billion in bonuses that were paid ahead of schedule to Merrill executives despite the bank's massive losses. -By Kerry E. Grace, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5089; kerry.grace@dowjones.com
