Bank of America 2010 Annual Report Download - page 248

Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
Bank of America Corporation and Subsidiaries
To the Board of Directors of Bank of America
Corporation:
We have examined, based on criteria established in Internal Control – Inte-
grated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of
the Treadway Commission, Bank of America Corporation’s (the “Corporation”)
assertion, included under Item 9A of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, that
the Corporation’s disclosure controls and procedures were effective as of
December 31, 2010 (“Management’s Assertion”). Disclosure controls and
procedures mean controls and other procedures of an issuer that are de-
signed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by an issuer in
reports that it files or submits under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 is
recorded, processed, summarized, and reported within the time periods
specified in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s rules and forms,
and that information required to be disclosed by an issuer in reports that it
files or submits under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 is accumulated
and communicated to the issuer’s management, including its principal exec-
utive and principal financial officer, or persons performing similar functions,
as appropriate, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. The
Corporation’s management is responsible for maintaining effective disclo-
sure controls and procedures and for Management’s Assertion of the effec-
tiveness of its disclosure controls and procedures. Our responsibility is to
express an opinion on Management’s Assertion based on our examination.
There are inherent limitations to disclosure controls and procedures.
Because of these inherent limitations, effective disclosure controls and
procedures can only provide reasonable assurance of achieving the intended
objectives. Disclosure controls and procedures may not prevent, or detect and
correct, material misstatements, and they may not identify all information
relating to the Corporation to be accumulated and communicated to the
Corporation’s management to allow timely decisions regarding required dis-
closures. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods
are subject to the risk that disclosure controls and procedures may become
inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compli-
ance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.
We conducted our examination in accordance with attestation standards
established by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United
States). Those standards require that we plan and perform the examination
to obtain reasonable assurance about whether effective disclosure controls
and procedures were maintained in all material respects. Our examination
included obtaining an understanding of the Corporation’s disclosure controls
and procedures and testing and evaluating the design and operating effec-
tiveness of the Corporation’s disclosure controls and procedures based on
the assessed risk. Our examination also included performing such other
procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe
that our examination provides a reasonable basis for our opinion. Our exam-
ination was not conducted for the purpose of expressing an opinion, and
accordingly we express no opinion, on the accuracy or completeness of the
Corporation’s disclosures in its reports, or whether such disclosures comply
with the rules and regulations adopted by the Securities and Exchange
Commission.
In our opinion, Management’s Assertion that the Corporation’s disclosure
controls and procedures were effective as of December 31, 2010 is fairly
stated, in all material respects, based on criteria established in Internal
Control – Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring
Organizations of the Treadway Commission.
Charlotte, North Carolina
February 25, 2011
246 Bank of America 2010