Bank of America's Capital Plan Moving Ahead

Bank of America continued to move ahead on its plan to strengthen and diversity its capital by offering to exchange up to 200 million shares of common stock with nine series of outstanding preferred stock.

If successful the tender offer would bring the company closer to its goal of raising $33.9 billion in Tier 1 common equity to meet the requirement of the government's stress test. So far Bank of America has raised nearly $26 billion in capital, of 76% for the total capital buffer set by the Federal Reserve.

"We're pleased with the progress we've made to date and the speed in which we've been able to raise additional capital," said CFO Joe Price. "The strong demand that we are seeing from investors validates our belief that we are building a tremendous franchise with the ability to generate strong earnings and revenue."

Bank of America has raised this capital by:

1. Adding more than $13.5 billion through the sale of common stock since May 8th.

2. Selling a portion for the company's shares held in China Construction Bank (CCB).

3. Converting $5.9 billion in preferred stock held by some private institutional shareholders into common stock.

In addition, to these actions, Bank of America plans to sell non-strategic assets such as First Republic Bank and Columbia Management Group and to establish joint ventures. These actions would support the company in two important ways- adding capital from the sale of the assets and reducing the need for additional capital to support the balance sheet.

Bank of American also passed another important milestone on Thursday when it issued $2.5 billion in 10 year notes without a US Government guarantee, marking the second time in the last few weeks that the company has accessed the debt markets.

"Our ability to access the debt markets on our own is an important step to qualify for repaying the government's investment in our company, said Treasurer Mark Linsz " The proceeds from the debt offerings will further enhance our liquidity, which is already one of the strongest in the industry."