WHEN: Today, Wednesday, September 30th
WHERE: CNBC's "Fast Money"
Following is the unofficial transcript. All references must be sourced to CNBC.
****************************************
Melissa Lee: Goning ot take a pause here. We do have some breaking news here. We have been speculating in the past will Ken Lewis make it through the year. No better guy to talk about this than Charlie Gasparino, Charlie what is the latest?
Charlie Gasparino: Our long national nightmare is coming to an end. Not really. He has notified the board of directors of Bank of American that he will step down by the end of the year. Sources tell CNBC this was his decision their telling me not the board pressure, not regulatory pressure, but he thought take one for the team so to speak. He's come under a lot of pressure lately, all the bonus stuff the Cuomo investigation, but Ken Lewis is out, that will be by the end of the year. And what they are telling me inside BOF and we can speculate about this all day long is that it is his decision, he wants to go, he wants to spare the company further turmoil and he does have a succession team. We have a bunch, we have five names we should put up there and these are the guys that are possibly, do we have those names or do you want me to read them out?
These are the five or six names that, by the way, there is no successor named right now, I think that will be done in the next couple of months. As you know, he's gonna step he's notifying the board right now he's going to step down at the end of the year people tell CNBC.
Here are the six names:
Joe Price CFO
Brian Moynihan - Head of Consumer & Small Biz Banking
Sallie Krawcheck - Pres. Global Wealth
Thomas Montag - Head of Global Markets
Barbara DeSoer - Bank of America Home Loans
Greg Curl - Chief Risk Officer
If I was to sort of lay odds on this I think the two guys that have the inside track here are Moynihan and Curl. Curl is the head of risk, head of M&A, he put together the Merrill Lynch deal, which if you think it's a good deal or not it's going to be good in the future and it's kind of the future of B Of A. So that's one sort of positive in his respect. Brian Moynihan a positive for him is simply the fact that he's done most of the businesses, so a lot of people give him the inside track. I know a lot of people speculate about Sallie Krawcheck, but they don't give her the inside track on this, but Ken Lewis is stepping down. He is notifying the board probably momentarily, or if he's done so already, and it's going to be by the end of the year--
Lee: Charlie, has the company given you a comment on this even if it's no comment?
Gasparino: No comment yet, but my sources on this are impeccable, I will tell you this. He is stepping down by the end of the year. He is telling the board that he is stepping down, he's either doing it now or he did it a few minutes ago. And Ken Lewis' reign as CEO, remember he gave up the Chairmanship not to long ago amid the whole Merrill Lynch thing and all the stuff with the bonuses. There's a big change in the board, he's no longer the Chairman. I forget the gentleman who is the Chairman, but he is no longer the Chairman. He will give up the sort of day-to-day operating title of CEO. He will essentially be out of the company and this is a major thing. Remember we've been speculating about this for months. I reported a --- I think last week that the only way he would go is if a, he charged by the SEC. What they're telling me is that they don't think he's going to get charged by the SEC and this is purely his decision, he came to it the last couple days.
About CNBC:
CNBC is the recognized world leader in business news, providing real-time financial market coverage and business information to more than 340 million homes worldwide, including more than 95 million households in the United States and Canada. The network's Business Day programming (weekdays from 5:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m. ET) is produced at CNBC's headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., and also includes reports from CNBC news bureaus worldwide. Additionally, CNBC viewers can manage their individual investment portfolios and gain additional in-depth information from on-air reports by accessing http://www.cnbc.com.
Members of the media can receive more information about CNBC and its programming on the NBC Universal Media Village Web site at http://nbcumv.com/cnbc/.