But with BofA beset by a scandal that has claimed its top two asset management officials, who will lead this new behemoth?
That person, say those close to the matter, might be Keith Banks, the little-known CEO of Fleet’s money management subsidiary, $160 billion-in-assets Columbia Management Group.
Tapping Banks, who turns 48 this month, would give BofA an opportunity to clean up its image. The Columbia-branded funds have not been implicated in ongoing investigations of fund-share trading. BofA’s Nations Funds, by contrast, were among several fund families named in a September complaint brought by New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer against hedge fund Canary Capital Partners; the mutual funds were accused of facilitating improper trading of their shares by Canary. (Canary reached a settlement with Spitzer at that time.) Neither Nations nor BofA has been charged with wrongdoing, but the bank fired mutual fund chief Robert Gordon, who was named in the complaint. BofA asset management head Richard DeMartini, also identified in the Canary matter, will retire when the Fleet deal is done.
As of late November, BofA had yet to announce a new asset management chief. Banks reports to Brian Moynihan, head of Fleet’s wealth management activities and one of ten executives who will make up the new firm’s senior management team. Before joining Fleet in 2000, Banks headed U.S. equities for J.P. Morgan Investment Management. He started his investment career as an equity analyst at Home Insurance in 1981. Neither Banks nor Moynihan would comment on who will get the job.
