Bank officials to testify Nov. 17
House panel moved hearing on Merrill deal to gather data
A congressional committee investigating Bank of America’s purchase of Merrill Lynch has set a new date for a public hearing at which several prominent bank officials from Massachusetts are scheduled to testify.
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will a hold a hearing Nov. 17 at which Bank of America senior executive Brian Moynihan and directors Charles K. Gifford, former chief executive of FleetBoston Financial, and Thomas May, CEO of NStar, have been asked to testify, according to three people briefed on the matter. All three live in the Boston area and are not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
The hearing is expected to focus on Bank of America’s $50 billion acquisition of troubled investment bank Merrill Lynch. Moynihan was the company’s chief legal counsel at the time the deal was completed Jan. 1.
Former Bank of America chief counsel Timothy J. Mayopoulos, whom Moynihan replaced, is also expected to testify.
The hearing was originally slated to be held last month, but was postponed to allow the committee to gather more information. In addition, Moynihan was added to the preliminary list of witnesses.
Bank of America, which received $45 billion in government aid, has been accused of misleading shareholders about the acquisition by failing to disclose the extent of Merrill Lynch’s mounting losses and the fact that Bank of America gave Merrill Lynch permission to issue as much as $5.8 billion in bonuses.
Committee investigators are also trying to determine whether Bank of America threatened to back out of the deal in December in order to pressure the US government to give it additional aid, or to renegotiate the deal.
In addition to the public hearing, committee investigators plan to interview Moynihan privately on Wednesday.
Committee staffers had hoped to interview both Gifford and May privately before the hearing as well, but do not currently plan to do so, according to one of the people briefed on the plans.
Moynihan, who now runs the company’s sprawling consumer banking units and lives in Wellesley, is considered one of the leading candidates to replace Bank of America chief executive Kenneth D. Lewis, who plans to retire at the end of the year. Meanwhile, Gifford, May, and a third Bank of America director from New England, CVS Caremark Corp. CEO Thomas Ryan, are on the six-member panel that will select the company’s next boss.
While Moynihan has generally not publicly commented on his role in the Merrill matter or on his professional ambitions, he waxed enthusiastically about the chief executive job in a brief interview with a wire service reporter Wednesday.
“Anybody would want this job, it’s one of the best jobs in the business,’’ Moynihan told a Reuters news service reporter who interviewed him at a speaking event in Los Angeles.
But Moynihan also appeared to acknowledge the possibility that he may not land the job, as some Bank of America shareholders have pushed the company to consider an outside candidate.
“This is a great company and I will continue to do a great job for it, no matter what the outcome,’’ Moynihan said.
Todd Wallack can be reached at twallack@globe.com. 
