Banc of America memo on "Nationalization"

WSJ Deal Journal provides BAC's internal memo from CEO Ken Lewis:

"I want to address any questions about Bank of America that may be arising as a result of the news that at least one of our competitors is now in discussions with the government to negotiate an enhanced public stake in their company. I have said repeatedly that our company does not need further assistance today and I don't believe we'll need any more in the future. That includes the potential conversion of the government's preferred shares into common shares that would dilute existing shareholders. You may have read that the first step in the government's broader plan to assist the banking industry will be a series of "stress tests" to evaluate the current financial condition of banks and their ability to withstand various economic scenarios. We are constantly running our own stress tests, which continue to show that our capital and liquidity are sufficient to meet today's economic challenges, as well as economic scenarios that include much higher unemployment rates than we have today. The final point I want to make is that our business prospects and financial condition are far superior to those of most of our competitors... While I would not want to try to predict how much we'll earn in 2009, we do expect to have revenues of more than $100 billion. Our tangible common equity ratio is currently about 2.68%, very close to investors' standard threshold of 3.0%..."