Bank of America Corp's board is scheduled to meet next Tuesday and may discuss the appointment of a new chief executive, a bank spokesman said.

The meeting is a regularly scheduled session, spokesman Bob Stickler said, adding that he assumes the search for a successor to Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis will come up.

Lewis in September said he would retire at year-end. The bank has been interviewing internal and external candidates to succeed him.

The bank expects to name a successor in the near future, Stickler said.

On Wednesday the bank announced a plan to repay $45 billion of taxpayer bailout funds. The repayment was seen as a move that could free the bank from pay curbs and make the search for a new CEO easier.

The specter of government oversight has played a large role in the CEO search, with possible candidates wary of the role the government would play in everything from bank operations to executive pay.

(Reporting by Deepti Govind in Bangalore and Joe Rauch in New York; additional reporting by Elinor Comlay, editing by Simon Jessop and John Wallace)

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