The beleaguered CEO and president of Bank of America, Ken Lewis, has announced his decision to retire at the end of the year.

Lewis, who has worked at the financial giant since 1969 and has been CEO since 2001, has been criticized heavily by the SEC since BofA's acquisition of Merrill Lynch last September. However, in a statement yesterday, Lewis said, "The Merrill Lynch and Countrywide integrations are on track and returning value already. Our board of directors and our senior management include more talent, and more diversity of talent, than at any time in this company's history. We are in position to begin to repay the federal government's TARP investments."

The board of directors will try to fill Lewis's shoes before his last day, December 31. In August, Lewis made changes to his executive management committee to position several senior executives to compete to succeed him at the appropriate time, probably without realizing how soon that would be.

The contenders on the executive committee include: Brian Moynihan, head of consumer banking; Tom Montag, who runs global markets, global corporate and investment banking; Sallie Krawcheck, who runs global wealth and investment management; David Darnell, who runs global commercial banking; Steele Alphin, chief administrative officer; Greg Curl, chief risk officer; Barbara Desoer, president of home loans and insurance; Anne Finucane, chief marketing officer; and Joe Price, chief financial officer. The board could also bring in an outsider to run the company, and reportedly has already approached a few candidates.