Bank of America 2012 Annual Report Download - page 280

278 Bank of America 2012
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
– Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring
Organizations of the Treadway Commission, Bank of America
Corporation’s (the “Corporation”) assertion, included under Item
9A, that the Corporation’s disclosure controls and procedures were
effective as of December 31, 2012 (“Management’s Assertion”).
Disclosure controls and procedures mean controls and other
procedures of an issuer that are designed 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 executive 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 disclosure controls and procedures and for
Management’s Assertion of the effectiveness 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 disclosures. 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 compliance
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 effectiveness 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
examination 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, 2012 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 28, 2013