BofA: Financial Winners & Losers

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Bank of America (BAC Quote) was among the losers of the financial sector Thursday following reports the bank was having trouble finding a replacement for outgoing CEO Ken Lewis.

Bank of America was trading lower by 1.2% to $16.23 following a report in The Financial Times that the bank might not meet its goal of naming a replacement for Lewis by Thanksgiving, due to the lack of a clear frontrunner and concerns that the process must pass muster with the Federal Reserve. Meanwhile, a CNBC commentator said Lewis' replacement will likely to be an inside candidate.

Rochdale Securities analyst Dick Bove said Thursday that the "obvious" candidate for BofA's top position is Lewis himself. Bove argued any outside candidate must be willing to take a cut in salary, give up his or her independence in running the business, and subject themselves to Congressional and press attacks.

"It is clear that the government wants an outsider or a replacement candidate from inside would have been selected by now," Bove wrote in a research note. "However, outsiders who have credibility can see no reason to take a post where they may be hounded to be government automatons. Note the frustrations of Ed Liddy and Robert Benmosche at AIG."

Bove issued several other research notes on bank stocks Thursday. He said it will cost Citigroup (C Quote) five years at a cost of $25 billion per year to wind down Citi Holdings. "What is left will be Citicorp a very attractive company with solid earnings," Bove said. "It makes sense to invest in the future now."