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“We believe BAC is very interested in acquiring Barclays Plc,” declares Merrill Lynch in an extraordinarily bolshy research note published on Friday.

Rumours of a Bank of America/Barclays tie-up are a long-standing favourite - with “Spanish bank to buy Barclays” as a close runner up. That had another outing this week with reports that BBVA was eyeing the UK bank.

But Merrill goes further: “In our opinion, BAC’s next big acquisition will likely be Barclays Plc, and a deal could be announced near term.”

They go on to lay out their evidence:

1. Barclays is the perfect fit for BofA, given the latter’s international aspirations
2. Al de Molina, BofA’s finance officer announced his resignation last Friday. “The timing of his resignation is suspect to us,” says Merrill. “If if Mr. De Molina is aware that BAC is pursuing a large acquisition (as we suspect could be the case), he may have chosen to resign ahead of the deal because resigning after deal announcement would interrupt the perceived continuity of BAC’s senior management team in the midst of the largest financial services acquisition ever.”
3. BofA’s chief executive Ken Lewis cancelled a meeting on Wednesday with a group of institutional investors due to an impromptu business trip.
4. Barclays shares were up 3 per cent on Thursday on more than double average daily volumes.

The note, written out of the US by analyst Edward Najarian, is the latest example of aggressive calls in research notes from the banks - something that is raising the hackles of those on the receiving end of such research. 

BofA is getting used to being the name in the frame for banking consolidation. Ken Lewis told Bloomberg in September that the bank was losing track of the stories. “We’ve been linked with so many, I’m not sure I can name them all,'’ Lewis said. “It’s gotten to a point that it’s almost silly in terms of the number that have been mentioned.”