Bank of America 2014 Annual Report Download - page 268

266 Bank of America 2014
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 (2013) 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, 2014
(“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, 2014 is fairly stated, in all material respects, based
on criteria established in Internal Control – Integrated Framework
(2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of
the Treadway Commission.
Charlotte, North Carolina
February 25, 2015