Mr Lewis is retiring at the end of the year

Bank of America's chief executive Kenneth Lewis, who is due to retire at the end of the year, will receive no salary or bonus for 2009.

The decision was made by the US Treasury Department's Kenneth Feinberg, who looks at pay at bailed-out firms.

Mr Lewis will pay back the $1m (£612,000) he has already received of his $1.5m annual salary.

His management of the firm has been criticised, especially last year's decision to buy Merrill Lynch.

The $50bn deal depleted Bank of America's cash reserves, and it subsequently needed $45bn in government bail-outs as the financial crisis worsened.

Shareholders had already ousted Mr Lewis, 62, as chairman in April.

He is unlikely to face financial hardship as his pension is reported to be worth tens of millions of dollars.

Bank of America will be the fourth of the big US banks to report when it announces third-quarter results later on Friday.

Mr Feinberg is looking into the pay of the 75 highest-paid executives at companies bailed out by the government, including AIG, Citigroup, General Motors and Chrysler.