Bank of America Names Moynihan CEO, Replacing Lewis

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The U.S. injected $45 billion into Bank of America through the purchase of preferred shares, including $20 billion approved in January after the Merrill Lynch takeover to keep the deal from collapsing. The bank redeemed the shares earlier this month after raising $19 billion through a stock sale.

Documents released during a congressional investigation of the Merrill purchase show Moynihan as general counsel played a role in conducting the transaction and advising Lewis. The CEO was later criticized by investors and regulators for not telling shareholders about Merrill's $3.6 billion in employee bonuses and mounting losses.

Moynihan's relations frayed with Representative Edolphus Towns, a New York Democrat who leads the House Oversight Committee. After Moynihan testified on his role in the Merrill takeover at a Nov. 17 hearing, Towns said he didn't believe some of the banker's answers and that Moynihan "didn't show the kind of leadership a company would seem to need."

Credit Cards

"I hope Mr. Moynihan appreciates the debt Bank of America owes to U.S. taxpayers," Towns said in a statement yesterday.

Bank of America is addressing consumer and political concerns by providing more clarity to customers in credit cards, home loans and other retail businesses, Moynihan said. His own success as CEO will be measured by whether customers, investors and employees "say we are doing a better job," he said.

Moynihan is an Ohio native, a graduate of Brown University and the University of Notre Dame School of Law. The CEO and Bank of America will be based in Charlotte, and there are no plans to move the headquarters, Stickler said.

Moynihan praised Tom Montag, who heads the bank's capital markets unit, for helping retain senior bankers and noted that Bank of America has ranked second in investment banking fees for three straight quarters.

"To perform that way in these tough economic times is a real testament to that business," he said.

The bank needs brokerage and investment-banking fees to overcome higher losses in its credit-card and home-loan businesses, which make up about 36 percent of revenue this year. The U.S. unemployment rate stood at 10 percent in November, and

Lewis told employees in September when he announced his departure that "a near double-digit unemployment rate is bad medicine for a bank that serves consumers." He predicted that "the next two quarters will be difficult."

To contact the reporter on this story: David Mildenberg in Charlotte at dmildenberg@bloomberg.net.

To contact the reporter on this story: David Mildenberg in Charlotte at dmildenberg@bloomberg.net.