CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Change to Win Investment Group today asked Bank of America Corp.'s board to fire chairman and chief Executive Ken Lewis over missteps regarding the company's Merrill Lynch & Co. acquisition and a plummeting share price.

The activist investor group told Bank of America's board in a letter today that Lewis failed to back away from the merger once the size of Merrill's losses became clear, failed to disclose Merrill's losses in a timely manner, and allowed Merrill to pay $3.6 billion of bonuses to many of its employees.

Lewis took "outsized, reckless risks by acquiring Merrill Lynch in the midst of severe financial uncertainty," and his removal "is necessary to restore investor confidence," CtW Executive Director William Patterson wrote in the letter to O. Temple Sloan Jr., Bank of America's lead outside director.

CtW Investor Group said that if the bank does not remove Lewis, it will petition shareholders to vote against his re-election at Bank of America's annual meeting in April.