Financial system is still live, BofA pays first dividends

On Wednesday January 21, 2009 Bank of America Corporation and Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. made a conjoint announcement to their corresponding Boards of Directors about declared preferred dividends. The report included the initial cash dividends on the Fixed-Rate Cumulative Perpetual Preferred Stocks, Series Q and R, as well as a quarterly cash dividend on the Merrill Lynch 9 Percent Non-Voting Mandatory Convertible Non-Cumulative Preferred Stocks, Series 2 and 3.

February 17, 2009 was set as the date when the cash dividend of $125 per share, or a total of approximately $50 million, on the Fixed-Rate Cumulative Perpetual Preferred Stock, Series Q, is payable to the shareholder of record as of January 31, 2009. This will be the first quarterly dividend payment to the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the shareholder of record. The initial cash dividend of $161.11 per share, or a total of approximately $129 million, on the Fixed-Rate Cumulative Perpetual Preferred Stock, Series R, is payable on February 17, 2009 to the shareholder of record as of January 31, 2009. This is also the first quarterly dividend payment to the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the shareholder of record.

Dividends on the Merrill Lynch 9 Percent Non-Voting Mandatory Convertible Non-Cumulative Preferred Stock, Series 2, which accounts for $2,250 per share, are payable on March 2, 2009, to shareholders of record as of February 15, 2009. As for a quarterly cash dividend on the Merrill Lynch 9 Percent Non-Voting Mandatory Convertible Non-Cumulative Preferred Stock, Series 3, that also make up $2,250 per share, it is payable on March 2, 2009, to shareholders of record as of February 15, 2009.

Source: Bank of America