The bad news for brokers at Bank of America Corp. is that they will probably bear the brunt of the layoff burden as BofA combines its wealth management operation with that of Merrill Lynch & Co., following BofA's acquisition of Merrill.
The good news, such as it is: BofA brokers who stay will be working on the
whiz-bang wealth-management workstations Merrill created in partnership with Thomson-Reuters, at a reported cost of $1 billion. At least, that's the line of reasoning in an article in InvestmentNews.
If the moves are unusual ones for Bank of America, well, these are unusual times, and not just for BofA.
In "
Making megabanks," an article published today in the Deal newsweekly, we look at the integration challenges ahead for acquirers in the many hastily agreed deals under way in the financial services sector. Conversations with a half-dozen prominent consultants in the field confirm that on the integration front there's some learning ahead. Yes, acquisitive banks have amassed plenty of integration experience in past deals. But they've never struck deals so quickly, with so many details unsettled, and then tried to refine new business models amid such a fast-changing industry landscape.
In the case of BofA-Merrill, the most ambitious deal so far, BofA is expected to move cautiously, lest Merrill's highly productive brokers (who are being recruited by other firms) become skittish. Their preferred technology platform might be worth keeping, a least for a while, even if it weren't so superior. But apparently it is. Merrill worked with Thomson-Reuters to build it even though the firm owns a chunk of rival Bloomberg.
Maybe the platform can even be part of the solution down the road, when BofA tackles the significant challenge of training retail brokers and bankers to cross-sell products.-
Kenneth Klee
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