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Bank of America is reportedly talking to treasury officials about paying back some of the bailout money it received.  WFAE's Lisa Miller has more:

The Wall Street Journal reported this week the bank wants to pay off $20 billion it received to bolster its acquisition of Merrill Lynch. That's nearly half the total amount of bailout money the government sunk into Bank of America. That money came with a lot of prying regulatory eyes that analysts say the bank is trying to rid itself of.

UNC Charlotte Banking Professor Tony Plath says the government may not be so quick to let Bank of America give the money back.

"The government may want them to keep the capital they have, that's surplus right now, to see what the 3rd and 4th quarters look like to make sure they've got enough of a cushion to write down loan losses," says Plath.

Bank of America received one of the largest loans the Treasury issued to the banks. That means the government is keeping an even closer eye on the bank's activities.

Plath says Bank of America really wants to let go of the money partly because of the government's efforts to regulate salaries. He says the bank is losing some employees to other financial services companies.

A Bank of America spokesman did not comment on the issue.

Bank of America has really hurt a lot of thier customers and if you call them and mention the bailout they will tell you they have paid every bit of the money they owe back. I was even told to Google it. So every day I google it and still have not found that answer even after they gave me a balance transfer and a week later lowered my limit below the transfer so they could start charging me fee. By the way they also told me I should go into Debt Management. The American People would have done better recieving the money from the goverment at least you know they could have taxed it out of us and gotten it back eventually as everyone got back on thier feet. Why don't the retention bonus people give back the money so that their co workers can keep thier job? Maybe BoF will give them a 30% mortgage loan

LEAVE THE GUN TAKE THE CANNLOI