New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo has been investigating bonuses paid by Merrill and questions of whether company’s losses should have been disclosed before the merger was finalised. Shareholders, angry over the price Bank of America paid for Merrill, voted to strip Lewis of his chairmanship in the spring, and regulators have pressured the bank to shake-up its board and management.

Lewis’s honesty and intentions were called into question on Thursday morning at the hearing held by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. “No matter how great Bank of America is doing today, the means does not justify the end,” said Elijah Cummings, a democrat from Maryland. “In other words, through these transactions, we must have honesty, transparency and integrity, period.”

Lewis was careful not to strongly criticise government officials and described them in his opening statement as “people of good intentions”. The two officials that have been most associated with the situation are Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke and former Treasury secretary Henry Paulson. The committee is planning to call them both to testify next. There are several questions still looming over the merger, including exactly when Merrill’s losses were known, whether the bank could have backed out of the deal and what role the government played in influencing the outcome. Lewis said that both Paulson and Bernanke pressured him to stick to the deal.

Dennis Kucinich, a Democrat from Ohio, read from e-mail messages between federal officials that said that Lewis requested a letter that might absolve him of legal risk.