Oct. 15--As a key U.S. House committee scrutinizes the role of board members in Bank of America's acquisition of Merrill Lynch, an exchange between two bank directors reveals their reaction to the deal's ripple effect on stockholders.

"Unfortunately it's screw the shareholders!!" Chad Gifford wrote fellow director Thomas May on Jan. 15 as the two listened in on a board conference call that carried news that the Charlotte bank would slash its once-lucrative shareholder dividend to a penny.

"No trail," May wrote back, probably aware that their e-mails could be made public later.

The clipped, salty exchange between the two longtime colleagues is among the documents provided to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and to New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. Both are investigating whether the bank properly disclosed information to its shareholders about certain aspects of the Merrill deal, including the company's mounting losses. They are also investigating whether the government inappropriately pressured Bank of America to complete the deal.

The committee chairman, Rep. Edolphus Towns, said this week he plans to interview several of the bank's board members. His statement came after the bank announced it would waive attorney-client confidentiality to release more documents about the Merrill deal. Those documents should show what the bank executives were told by their lawyers as they decided what to disclose about Merrill and what to keep private.

"As I have said throughout this investigation, the American people deserve answers and we will keep working until we get them," Towns, a New York Democrat, said in a statement.

The board's Jan. 15 conference call was convened just hours before the government announced that Bank of America would accept a second, $20 billion round of government loans to help with the Merrill deal, and that it would have to nearly obliterate its shareholder dividend.

That deal with the government vaulted Bank of America into a disagreeable category -- firms requiring "exceptional assistance." It greatly tightened the government's grip on the bank, forcing it to keep the dividend at a penny for at least three years and place stricter rules on executive bonuses. It was one of the Treasury's last major acts under Secretary Hank Paulson, whose term ended with the Bush administration's on Jan. 20.

The Jan. 15 call was on the evening before Bank of America, which had weathered the credit crunch relatively unscathed, reported its first quarterly loss in 17 years.