Bank of America Corp. didn't pay its CEO Ken Lewis or any of its other top executives a bonus last year, like most major U.S. banks, saying its 2008 financial results didn't meet its expectations.

Lewis received the same salary as he did the year before, $1.5 million, as well as $275,125 in perks such as air travel, which was up slightly from the prior year. Lewis had received a bonus of $4.25 million in 2007. Including the value of stock-based compensation and other factors, Lewis's total compensation according to AP calculations fell 56 percent to $9 million in 2008 versus $20.4 million in 2007.

Bank of America is one of the companies at the center of a storm engulfing the U.S. financial system, and has received $45 billion in emergency funding from the government. On Monday Lewis told the Financial Times newspaper that the second part of that aid, a $20 billion chunk to support the bank's hastily arranged purchase of Merrill Lynch & Co. last fall, was a "tactical mistake."

Compensation of financial executives has been under close scrutiny since the bailout of U.S. financial institutions began last fall, including $3.6 billion in bonus payouts to Merrill executives. Lewis as well as former Merrill CEO John Thain have been called upon to testify about the bonuses.

BofA went out of its way in its annual proxy statement filed late Monday to indicate that compensation of its executives was being held in check. The bank said its board heeded Lewis's request that no senior officers receive bonuses last year and also said the company's 2008 results "did not meet our expectations," despite being one of the few major financial institutions to be profitable last year.

The bank posted a $2.39 billion loss for the three months ended in December, but earned $2.56 billion after preferred dividends for all of 2008, down from $14.80 billion in fiscal 2007.

Lewis also received stock-based compensation with an accounting value of $7.2 million last year, but about $3 million of that was in options with an exercise price of $42.70, far below BofA's closing share price of $3.63 on Monday.

Also, the bank said in a footnote accompanying the compensation figures that last year's stock-based compensation for top executives did not reflect performance in 2008 but expenses for awards made for performance from 2005 through 2007. Lewis received stock-based compensation in 2007 that was valued at $14.4 million.

Other top BofA executives also received no bonus last year but did receive their same salary. Chief Financial Officer Joe L. Price had a salary of $800,000, unchanged from last year when he also received a bonus of $1.6 million.

The Associated Press calculations of total pay include executives' salary, bonus, incentives, perks, above-market returns on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock options and awards granted during the year. The calculations don't include changes in the present value of pension benefits, and they sometimes differ from the totals companies list in the summary compensation table of proxy statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.