BofA's Insider CEO Candidates Criticized

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The pressure on Bank of America's board to not select an insider to replace Ken Lewis as chief executive has begun to heat up.

Finger Interests, an investment firm run by a high-profile father-and-son team, filed a notice with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday, urging shareholders to reject either of two top executives as leaders of the bank. Though the range of contenders is wide -- more than two dozen names have been floated as potential CEOs - Brian Moynihan, who leads consumer and small-business operations, and Chief Risk Officer Greg Curl, are thought to be neck-in-neck for the top spot.

"The current management team is tainted and not credible," the investment firm said in the filing, noting that no less than five government agencies are investigating executives' involvement with the BofA-Merrill Lynch merger.

Finger Interests, run by Jerry and Jonathan Finger, has owned Bank of America stock since it was a small regional operator in North Carolina. Largely silent in the past, the firm has taken an atypical activist streak with regard to the Merrill merger. The Fingers played a key role in garnering shareholder support to vote Lewis out of his chairmanship in April, and believes the bank needs fresh leadership from outside its folds to improve its position.

Apart from Sallie Krawcheck, a former Citigroup (C) CFO who joined BofA to run its wealth-management operations in August, the Fingers said bank leadership is not "focused on building shareholder value or increased transparency."