Bank of America Corp. announced Friday that its board has approved a $713 million dividend payment to the federal government on its stock interests it holds in the company as part of last year’s bank bailout. That would bring to about $2.54 billion the total amount of dividends the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank has already paid out to the Treasury Department since the government rescued Bank of America from funds in the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. The bank received an initial infusion of $25 billion from the program last fall. Then it got another $20 billion in January after it agreed to absorb the ailing investment bank Merrill Lynch & Co. In return, the company agreed to transfer massive amounts of preferred stock shares to the government — shares on which quarterly dividends must be paid before regular shareholders can receive their own proceeds from company revenues. The payment, which is scheduled for Nov. 16, appears to be part of a larger strategy by BoA to fully repay its TARP obligations to the government in hopes of escaping the heavy hand of increased federal regulation, especially on issues relating to executive pay. Two months ago, the bank’s beleaguered chief executive officer, Ken Lewis, told shareholders that a full payoff was possible but would take time.

The bank, which has benefited from a rebounding financial sector in recent months, also approved dividend payments to holders of 14 other classes of preferred stock, as well as two classes of old Merrill Lynch preferred stock. Despite that news, DS News reported earlier this week that Lewis — who is embroiled in numerous legal wrangling arising from the downturn, the Merrill Lynch deal and salaries and bonuses to bank executives — announced this week that he would resign his post. A replacement has not been named yet. The news appeared to have little effect on the company’s common stock. Shares of BoA — which have risen about 13 percent on the year so far — were unchanged at $16.20 in mid-day New York Stock Exchange composite trading on Friday.