Officials of the US Federal Reserve described Kenneth Lewis, the chief executive of Bank of America (BoA), as "somewhat suspect" and "reckless", e-mails obtained before a congressional committee hearing revealed.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will interview Mr Lewis on Thursday about BoA's troubled $50 billion, all-paper acquisition of Merrill Lynch last September.

The committee was forced to subpoena the Fed on Tuesday to obtain copies of e-mails from the central bank regarding its role in the Merrill takeover.

As losses mounted at the investment bank in December, BoA had attempted to walk away from the takeover but was forced by the Fed and the Treasury to complete the deal.

According to Dow Jones Newswires, which has seen the e-mails handed to the House committee, Fed attorneys called Mr Lewis's arguments against the deal "not credible" and said that the bank chief executive's own position "seems somewhat suspect".

An e-mail from Ben Bernanke, the Fed chairman, described Mr Lewis's threat to abandon the deal as a 'bargaining chip" to obtain more Government assistance.

Taxpayers ended up giving BoA $20 billion to help it to absorb the losses made at Merrill.

Another Fed lawyer noted that Mr Lewis "can be reckless".

Mr Lewis has previously claimed that Hank Paulson, the Treasury Secretary at the time, told him in December that he would cause the collapse of the US financial system if BoA did not buy Merrill, which was teetering on the brink of collapse.

Mr Paulson has admitted passing on a threat from Mr Bernanke that the BoA chief executive and board would lose their jobs if the deal did not go through.

Mr Lewis has also claimed that Mr Paulson and Mr Bernanke told him to keep his concerns about Merrill's financial problems a secret from BoA's shareholders, something the two men deny.

Shareholders were furious that they were not informed that Merrill was about to make a $15.8 billion fourth-quarter loss before they approved the acquisition on December 5. The takeover closed in January.

The House committee is expected to criticise the Government's role in the deal with Merrill.

A BoA spokesman said this afternoon that the e-mails were sent at "extremely difficult times in which all parties were working nights and weekends in an effort to prevent a severe financial collapse".

The spokesman added: "We believe it involved good people working with good intentions."

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