BofA's Lewis hopeful on financial bailout plan

Bank of America Corp. Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis says the $25 billion the government is injecting into his bank will be put to work making loans and will be paid back at the latest in five years.

In an interview aired Sunday on CBS' "60 Minutes," Lewis confirmed that top executives were given no option last week when Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson unveiled a plan for the government to pour $125 billion into nine major banks. In return, the government will get ownership stakes in the financial institutions.

Lewis said Paulson told the executives that the money being loaned to the banks to jump-start frozen U.S. lending was "the right thing for the American financial system, and therefore it was the right thing for America."

He told the news program that he was stunned at the amount being loaned, but believes the $25 billion received by the Bank of America, which is based in Charlotte, North Carolina, will be put to good work. However, the Treasury's plan does not demand banks use the money for consumer or corporate lending _ and could instead use it to buy weaker companies.

"We wouldn't want to do it that way, because you can make more money lending," he said. "And, so it _ the intent _ will be to use it to grow loans and to make more net income."

While the government taking an ownership position in banks smacks of socialism to some, Lewis said the situation will not last long.

"Yeah, I think somewhere between three and five years, we'll pay (the government money) off," he said. "And then _ and then you go back to _ more toward capitalism."

There was a point during the meeting with Paulson when some of the bankers resisted any stipulations or caps related to executive compensation. Lewis, who received compensation of $20.4 million last year, argued that Wall Street executives already make too much money.