Bank of America CEO foresees no problems paying back TARP

Bank of America will not have any difficulty paying back its loans to the Treasury Department and federal government, its CEO Kenneth Lewis indicated this morning.

“We would like to pay all of that back and not have that as an issue,” Lewis said Thursday morning during an appearance on CNBC, noting though that he did not know Bank of America will have repaid all of its loans. “We made our first payment just a few weeks ago, $400 million. This is not a freebie.”

Bank of America has been a particularly large recipient of federal funds, taking some $45 billion in loans to date.

“When we were with the president the other day, he basically said we need to make sure — and I agree with this —