Word: credited
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...either lending or underwriting loans. That prudence led to smaller lending losses at B of A than at Citigroup and other rivals. What's more, while other financial firms were verging on broke, Bank of America seemed to have enough capital to play the role of rescuer in the credit crunch...
...Army sergeant and a nurse, Lewis grew up in Columbus, Ga. He joined the firm that would become Bank of America right after graduating from George State College in 1969. Early on, Lewis' cool demeanor and keen credit judgment caught the eye of the bank's chief executive, Hugh McColl. Soon Lewis became the wingman to McColl's swashbuckling merger ways. McColl would do the deals, and Lewis would parachute in to do the cost-cutting and integration. Along the way, the two built Bank of America to become the country's largest bank in terms of deposits...
...retired in 2001, Lewis took over. But rather than retrenching as most people expected, Lewis proved he liked the art of the deal as much as McColl. In 2003, Bank of America bought Boston-based bank Fleet for $47 billion. Two years later he spent $35 billion to buy credit card giant MBNA. And as the credit crisis began to unfold, Lewis picked up Countrywide, which at its height was the nation's largest independent mortgage lender, for just over $4 billion...
...whoever takes over from Lewis will have a tough job returning the bank to the position it was in on the eve of the credit crisis. Lewis seems to agree. In the resignation e-mail that went out to employees, Lewis wrote, "I am disappointed in how we managed credit risk. The next two quarters will be difficult...
...Photo Credit: JohnnyMrNinja/Wikimedia Commons