Moynihan continues to report to Lewis and is a member of the management executive team. He joined Bank of America in 2004, following its merger with FleetBoston Financial. At Fleet, he led brokerage and wealth management after leading Fleet's Internet strategy. Before that, he directed its strategic development for six years, overseeing all mergers and acquisitions.
Thain, former chairman and CEO of Merrill Lynch, was president of global banking, securities and wealth management for Bank of America.
The departure was announced after a meeting with BofA CEO Ken Lewis
about the future of the combined companies. From January 2004 to
December 2007, Thain was chief executive and a director of NYSE
Euronext Inc. following the NYSE Group and Euronext NV merger in June
2006. Before that, Thain worked at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., where he
was president and chief operating officer.
It was speculated that Thomas Montag in New York would leave the bank as well. But the head of global markets will stay on and report directly to Lewis. Montag will also become a member of the management executive team. He was a 22-year veteran of Goldman Sachs, joining Merrill in 2008 as head of global sales and trading.
BofA -- whose
stock price nosedived on Thursday -- decided to acquire Merrill on the same day Lehman Brothers
Holdings Inc. filed for bankruptcy, sending shockwaves across the
markets. Merrill, expected to post about a $15.4 billion loss for the
fourth quarter, said its clients
pulled out about $10 billion that same quarter.
The latest high-profile departures from Merrill include
longtime execs
Daniel Markaity and Christopher Bury, who joined Jefferies & Co. as
co-heads of the fixed-income rates business; former president and chief
operating officer Gregory Fleming, who
went to his alma mater Yale; and
Robert McCann,
who was vice chairman and president of the prized global
wealth management division at Merrill. -
Baz Hiralal
BofA bailout puts Merrill defections in context
Bank of America shares tumble on Thain reports
Moynihan to Head Global Banking and Wealth Management
John Thain is leaving Bank of America Corp. and is being replaced by Brian Moynihan. The departure comes three weeks after BofA completed a hasty acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co. and days after it got another bailout from the government, this one worth $138 billion.
