Ken Lewis, the outgoing chief executive of Bank of America, said the Merrill Lynch merger is ahead of schedule and has resulted in $2.2 billion in cost savings through 30 September.

What’s more, Mr. Lewis said the bank expects to achieve 45 per cent of its total cost savings from the integration by the end of this year, compared with BoA’s earlier projections of only 25 per cent.

The takeover of Merrill Lynch has created the world's biggest wealth management business by size of assets, although BoA/Merrill remains a predominantly domestic US force; UBS, the Swiss bank, remains arguably the world's largest international wealth firm, notwithstanding some of its recent losses related to the credit crunch.

Mr. Lewis made his remarks to financial analysts at a Bank of America Merrill Lynch conference in New York yesterday.

“As I look ahead, I see no reason that Bank of America will not be among the handful of the most important and most successful financial-service companies in the world,” Mr. Lewis told the analysts.

Bank of America and Merrill’s combined retail brokerage business now has approximately 15,000 advisors, Mr. Lewis said.

BofA/Merrill had about 16,000 advisors when the two firms merged in January, but Mr. Lewis said the company has retained 94 per cent of its top producers.

While the economy may be slowly improving, Mr. Lewis said, recovery in the financial industry remains slow.

The meeting with analysts may be Mr. Lewis’ last. He is set to retire by the end of the year, and BoA is expected to announce a replacement by Thanksgiving.