Nov. 2--Add Bank of Bob Kelly to the list of financial services executives who aren't clamoring for the top job at Bank of America Corp.

The Bank of New York Mellon Corp. CEO was approached in the past couple of weeks about becoming the Charlotte bank's leader but he said he had no interest, a person familiar with the situation said today. Kelly wasn't approached directly by the bank but through an acquaintance, the person said.

Kelly is known in Charlotte as the former chief financial officer of Wachovia Corp., the Charlotte bank bought last year by Wells Fargo & Co. He left in 2006 to become CEO of wealth manager Mellon Financial Corp., which he soon merged with Bank of New York. That merger has fared well and the bank was one of the first to pay back government loans it received in the financial crisis.

The Wall Street Journal first reported Kelly's lack of interest in the job.

Bank of America's board has been hunting for a CEO since Ken Lewis announced Sept. 30 that he was stepping down at year's end. He had been under fire for his Merrill Lynch & Co. acquisition, but the timing of the decision apparently blindsided the board.

Other potential outside candidates who have signaled they aren't interested are BlackRock CEO Larry Fink and MasterCard president Ajay Banga. The two leading internal candidates are consumer banking head Brian Moynihan and chief risk officer Greg Curl.

Another name receiving speculation lately is Michael O'Neill, a Citigroup board member with ties to Bank of America. O'Neill was the chief financial officer at San Francisco's BankAmerica Corp. when it merged in 1998 with Charlotte's NationsBank Corp. to become Bank of America. He stayed briefly at Bank of America before leaving to become CEO of British bank Barclays, although his tenure there was brief because of health issues. He later became the chief executive of Bank of Hawaii and is now retired.

O'Neill could not be reached for comment.

After Bank of America initially appeared to be honing in on inside candidates, some investors pushed back, saying they wanted a leader untainted by the bank's troubles. As the search lingers, some investors are questioning how seriously the bank is looking for an outside candidate, said people familiar with the situation.

The board's six-member search committee is dominated by directors from the former FleetBoston Financial Corp., who are believed to favor Moynihan, a former Fleet executive. Bank of America bought Fleet in 2004.

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