By Joe Rauch

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (Reuters) - Bank of America Corp's new chief financial officer could earn as much as $8.5 million in salary and bonuses, according to an offer letter filed with U.S. securities regulators on Friday.

Charles Noski, named as Bank of America's new CFO on Wednesday, will receive a $500,000 signing bonus, $800,000 in base salary, and could be eligible to receive up to $7.2 million in performance-related incentives, according to the letter filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A company spokesman said the bank would have no further comment beyond the filing.

The agreement is the first major employment contract for a new, outside senior executive created by Bank of America since it repaid $45 billion in government bailout aid last December. The repayment lifted many of the pay restrictions that were in place under the U.S. government's Troubled Asset Relief Program, and removed the purview of the so-called pay czar, Kenneth Feinberg.

Of the $7.2 million in potential bonuses, up to $4.8 million could be awarded in restricted stock, while $2.4 million could be paid in cash.

Those bonuses would not be paid until February 2011, according to the offer letter, and could vary depending on his and the company's performance through the end of 2010.

Noski's base salary is the same as that paid to current consumer banking chief, and former CFO, Joe Price and home loans chief Barbara Desoer, and is $150,000 less than Chief Executive Brian Moynihan's base pay, according to a February 2 SEC filing on changes to the compensation for Price, Desoer and Moynihan.

Noski also will receive up to four months of relocation assistance from the bank as he moves to North Carolina from California. He must give 180 days notice before leaving his CFO post.

Noski is a former Northrop Grumman executive and director at several Fortune 500 companies, including Microsoft Corp. He stepped down from Morgan Stanley's board to take the Bank of America job.

Noski, 57, is scheduled to start as CFO at the largest U.S. bank by assets on May 11.

(Reporting by Joe Rauch; editing by Carol Bishopric)