Bank of America, widely recognized as the most uncooperative lender in short sale negotiations, has recently partnered with California-based Equator (REOTrans) to electronically process short sale transactions.

Bank of America investor relations will be busy today. Earnings reports that are moving the markets this morning include General Electric, the biggest U.S. business conglomerate, and Bank of America, one of the biggest banks in the world. Both company’s reports were worse than anticipated causing the equities markets to be trading down this morning.

Outgoing Bank of America CEO, Ken Lewis, won't be receiving any more pay or bonuses in 2009. In fact, he has to repay Bank of America Corporation the more than $1 million he has already earned in his final year on the job. Lewis, 62, decided in late September to retire from his $1.5 a year job with Bank of America.

According to a contract Ken Lewis has with B of A, he is entitled to a $53+ million pension plan after he steps down as CEO of B of A later this year. That equates to an annual pension benefit of $3.5M for the rest of his life.

Bank of America CEO Kenneth Lewis informed the bank’s board today that he has decided to retire. The board accepted his decision but did not name a successor. Lewis,62, has been under tremendous pressure since Bank of America merged with Merrill Lynch in early 2009.

Last week, a Bank of America branch in Gaffney, SC removed American flags from an adjacent sidewalk, concerned, Branch Manager Brandy Tate said, that some might be offended by the flags. The flags were placed there as part of a funeral procession for Marine Lance Cpl. Chris Fowlkes. Fowlkes died Sept. 10th in a German hospital of injuries suffered in Afghanistan the previous week from an IED.

The mortgage meltdown was bad enough, but a credit card debt meltdown has been forecast by some analysts. It doesn't help when creditors arbitrarily raise interest rates, and that's what's happening here.

A $33 million settlement between the Bank of America and the Securities and Exchange Commission over bonuses paid to Merrill Lynch executives was rejected Monday morning by a Federal District judge. The bonuses were paid right before Bank of America took over Merrill Lynch last year.

WSJ, siting the statement to investors by the Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis, says that the bank is looking to close the ten percent of its U.S. Branches as a reflection of the current economic activities. The list of the Bank of America branch closings is not public yet.

The FT reports that Citigroup is close to a secret agreement with one of its main regulators that will increase scrutiny of the US bank and force it to fix financial (like those involving losing buckets of money), managerial (such as the fact that management caused and now can't stop the firm from losing buckets of money) and governance (such as those concerning directors that did nothing other than rubber stamp everything that management did causing the firm to lose buckets of money) issues.

The Countrywide home loans login is now at the Bank of America. As we all know Countrywide was taken over by Bank of America because of its financial troubles, and now Countrywide has been officially rebranded as Bank of America Home Loans. For those that are looking for the new login for their old Countrywide accounts they’re located at: www.bankofamerica.com/cwcustomers.