Lead director at BofA quits

Bank of America Corp. lead director O. Temple Sloan Jr., who defended Chief Executive Kenneth D. Lewis from an effort to force him out, resigned from the board Friday after 13 years.

Sloan, 70, submitted his resignation to Walter E. Massey, who replaced Lewis as chairman after the April annual meeting, according to a statement from the Charlotte, N.C.-based lender. Investors at the meeting voted to split the chairman and CEO jobs.

Bank of America and Lewis came under fire from investors who say they should have been told about mounting losses at Merrill Lynch & Co. before they voted to approve a takeover of the broker.

Sloan, although reelected to the board at the meeting, received the fewest votes of any director amid opposition from proxy advisory firms RiskMetrics Group Inc. and Proxy Governance Inc., and Finger Interests, a Houston-based family partnership that owned 1.1 million shares.