During Lewis' six-plus years in office BofA rose an annualized 10.1%, compared with 7.5% for the Nasdaq Banking Index.

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The weak performance of the Dow Jones Banking index should be less surprising, as the group is down 13.6% over the past three months.

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Greece's four biggest lenders were the biggest decliners on the Dow Jones European banking stocks index on Wednesday: National Bank, EFG Eurobank, Alpha Bank and Piraeus Bank.

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Tendai Musikavanhu, president of Old Mutual Global Index Trackers, part of the Old Mutual investment and insurance banking family, says there are too many variables at play to know for sure.

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Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.1% to 22337.49, as banks dropped following the China Banking Regulatory Commission's tighter rules on wealth-management products, which is expected to restrain smaller banks' earnings growth.

WSJ: Nikkei Outperforms as BOJ Meets

In Britain, Barclays Global Investors, part of the banking group, has become the world's fourth-biggest asset manager after acquiring Wells Nikko, an index-fund provider that was itself the product of a joint venture between an American and a Japanese firm.

ECONOMIST: Local restrictions permitting