Tuesday, September 6, 2011

"Sallie Krawcheck Out At Bank Of America Merrill Lynch" (BAC)

Merrill has been a pretty solid profit center for BAC, it's hard to see how messing with it will solve the problems the behemoth is facing in the other businesses.
From Forbes:
The stressed relationship between Bank of America and Merrill Lynch just got uglier with the announcement today that Sallie Krawcheck, is leaving her post as head of  Merrill Lynch’s global wealth management division.

Krawcheck is out after just two years on the job as head of Merrill’s powerful brokerage force of 16,000 financial advisors. Since BofA purchased Merrill in 2008 the brokerage unit has been pumping out profits for struggling BofA. No replacement has been named for Krawcheck and it seems BofA will keep it that way.

CEO Brian Moynihan named David Darnell and Tom Montag to the newly-created positions of co-chief operating officers, accountable for all of the company’s operating units. Montag was welcomed to Merrill back in 2008 by his old Goldman Sachs friend and then CEO of Merrill, John Thain. Darnell, on the other hand, is a BofA-lifer whose been with the bank since 1979 when he worked as a credit analyst....MORE