Bank of America plans vote on change allowing CEO to be chairman

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bank of America Corp <BAC.N> plans to hold a shareholder vote on the change the board made in October to company bylaws to allow Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan to also be chairman.

The vote, to be held no later than 2016, is in response to comments from shareholders since the board made the change on its own, according to a letter sent to shareholders on Monday by Moynihan and Jack Bovender, the lead independent director on the board.

The board's action in October had reversed a move by the company during the financial crisis to have separate people be CEO and chairman.

The announcement of a vote on the change comes two days before the company's annual shareholder meeting, to be held in Charlotte on Wednesday.

Ahead of the meeting, shareholder advisory firms Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis & Co issued reports that criticized how the board had changed the bylaws on its own. They recommended votes against the re-election of one or more members of the board's governance committee.

The advisory firms, however, recommended that Moynihan be re-elected to the board this year.

Stock analyst Mike Mayo of CLSA, who plans to attend Wednesday's shareholder meeting, has also called for votes against directors on the governance committee.

"We appreciate the candor with which stockholders have shared their insights, both in support of the decision and in expressing reservations about the process," the letter from Moynihan and Bovender said.

(Reporting by David Henry in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Meredith Mazzilli)