Thain departs BoA within a month of merger

John Thain, Merrill Lynch's former chairman and chief executive, is the second investment banking head to leave Bank of America (BoA) since the two banks' merger closed on January 1.

BoA appointed him to lead the global banking, global wealth and investment management division in the combined company. Brian Moynihan has now been appointed to take up this role temporarily; he was previously general counsel at BoA. Previous to the merger, Moynihan ran global corporate and investment banking for the firm.

Thain exits the firm as New York attorney general, Andrew Cuomo, is reported to have launched an investigation on January 22 into Merrill's decision to pay billions in bonuses to its staff on December 29, just a few days before Bank of America took full control of the firm.

The merger transition is not going as smoothly as some BoA staff may have hoped. Merrill's former head of investment banking, Gregory Fleming, left the bank within the first two weeks of the acquisition to work at Yale Law School's Corporate Law Center.

BoA received a $20 billion capital injection from the US Treasury on January 16, as Merrill revealed losses of $15.31 billion for the fourth quarter of last year, while BoA stated it had made an overall loss of $1.79 billion for the same period.

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