Bank of America Corp's board is not planning to remove Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis after he was ousted as chairman under shareholder pressure, the Wall Street Journal reported on its website on Thursday.

The bank's board did not discuss succession during a meeting on Wednesday or in recent talks with regulators, the paper reported, citing an unnamed source.

The bank's shareholders voted on Wednesday to oust Lewis as chairman and named Walter Massey to replace him, but the board also expressed support for Lewis to stay on as the CEO.

The directors are also confident that the U.S. government will not insist on converting its preferred stake to common stock, the paper reported.

Bank of America has received a total of $45 billion in taxpayer funds and may need more after results of government stress tests are released.

The Journal also reported that U.S. lawmakers were likely to call hearings about the involvement of the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve in the bank's acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co.

Bank of America declined to comment.

(Reporting by Paritosh Bansal)

Bank of america