Bank of America chief executive Ken Lewis said Wednesday that the world's biggest economy is "definitely slowing," according to a transcript of a speech Lewis delivered at a financial conference.
Lewis, who manages the largest US banking company by market worth, also said Bank of America anticipates setting aside 3.3 billion dollars to cover fourth quarter losses and writeoffs mainly tied to an ongoing housing slump.
"The economy is definitely slowing. We expect weak fourth and first quarters, but at this point we are not forecasting a recession," Lewis said, according to the transcript.
The update on likely losses and writeoffs provided by Lewis comes after Bank of America's chief financial officer, Joe Price, said in mid-November that such losses and write-downs would likely amount to three billion dollars.
"While we do not make a practice of forecasting quarterly earnings, I think you certainly can assume results will again be quite disappointing," Lewis said.
"In the past month, the markets have turned down again and will probably remain challenging into next year," he said, referring to a sharp downturn in US financial markets in August.
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