Bank of America today tapped insider Brian Moynihan as its next chief executive, ending months of speculation about who would succeed Kenneth Lewis to lead the largest US bank.
Mr Moynihan, who currently heads the lender's retail bank, will take over as chief executive and join the board after Mr Lewis's retirement on December 31st.
Many of Wall Street's elite, including Bank of New York Mellon Corp chief executive Robert Kelly, had been speculatively named as prospects for the post after Lewis announced plans in late September to retire after nearly a decade on the job.
Mr Moynihan takes over a company that is the largest retail bank in the United States - with 6,000 branches, 18,000 ATMs and nearly $1 trillion in total deposits - but is undergoing sweeping changes in its other businesses.
As the new chief executive, he must finish the integration of mortgage lender Countrywide Financial and investment bank and wealth manager Merrill Lynch into the company. He must also steer the bank - which has reported two quarterly losses within the last year, after posting nothing but profits for the last two decades - back to profitability.
Bank of America publicly identified the heads of each of its five major businesses, and its chief risk officer, as potential successors, with no external candidates ever formally named.
Yet according to some media reports, the bank struggled to field enough interested outside candidates - Mr Kelly said last Monday he would not take the job - while some investors chafed at the possibility of an internal candidate replacing Lewis.
The bank missed one self-imposed deadline of naming a new chief by the US Thanksgiving holiday on November 26th.
During the search, the bank's board relaxed a requirement that the chief executive be based in Charlotte, North Carolina, the bank's long-time headquarters city, and considered retaining Mr Lewis beyond his December 31st retirement date if a successor could not be found.
Reuters