Bank of America Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Ken Lewis said his bank was profitable in the first two months of the year and called possible nationalization of the bank a “nightmare.”

Lewis also said the bank would be profitable for the rest of the year, making $50 billion in 2009, not including taxes, credit losses and write downs, according to Reuters.

I actually think the next six months is going to be, in a positive way, a gut-wrenching time, Lewis said at meeting of the Chief Executive Officers Club of Boston.

Lewis also said it would be a “nightmare” if the government nationalized banks, saying shareholders would lose out and even bondholders could be wiped out while doing damage to an economy which may begin to grow again later this year.

U.S. Bank of america