Bank of America said it has raised $13.47 billion by selling new shares over the past two weeks, which has strengthened and diversified its capital structure.

The bank issued 1.25 billion shares since beginning the programme on Friday, 8 May at an average price of $10.77, representing gross proceeds of approximately $13.47 billion.

"We're pleased to have this portion of our capital plan completed," said Joe Price, chief financial officer. "This strengthens and diversifies our capital structure."

The US government earlier this month to meet requirements set down by the ''stress test'' of soundness in the nation's largest banks had told the bank that it needed to raise $33.9billion more than any other US bank to weather the recession. (See: Stress test shows BankAm may need $34 billion to stabilise operations)

The bank was forced to seek more capital after the acquisition of rival Merrill Lynch.

Other US banks are in the process of raising cash by issuing new shares.

Earlier this month, the US Treasury and the Federal Reserve undertook a series of so-called "stress tests" on 19 of US's biggest banks to determine if they had sufficient capital to cope should the recession deepen.

The finding concluded that 10 banks needed to raise $74.6 billion in new funds. Besides Bank of America, Citigroup Inc, Wells Fargo & Co, Fifth Third Bancorp, GMAC LLC, KeyCorp, Regions Financial Corp and SunTrust Banks Inc. were asked to raise capital.

Citigroup needed $5 billion, while GMAC LLC, the auto and mortgage lender, needs $11.5 billion, and Wells Fargo needs $15 billion, reports said

Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley each have so far raised $4billion.

The US Treasury had given banks time till 8 June to conclude their plans on raising capital after getting their approval.

Last month, the bank after JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup had reported first-quarter profits. (See: Bank of America reports encouraging Q1 results)