BofA Drops Merrill Lynch Name From Investment Bank Brand
February 26, 2019 by Lananh Nguyen
Bank of America Corp. will drop Merrill Lynch from its investment-bank brand, while keeping the name Merrill for wealth management.
The investment bank is to be called BofA Securities and the U.S. Trust name will be dropped from the private bank, Charlotte, North Carolina-based BofA said Monday in a statement.
Bank of America acquired Merrill Lynch, known for its “thundering herd” of brokers pitching stocks to Main Street, in the depths of the financial crisis. The firm took steps to dissolve the Merrill legal entity in 2013 while keeping the brand across retail and institutional businesses.
The moves are part of a campaign rolled out last year with an ad by Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan, who took the helm in 2010 after Kenneth Lewis stepped down. The bank posted a record net income of $28.1 billion for 2018, and is remaking its image as it moves on from crisis-era legacies including federal bailouts, regulatory probes and investor lawsuits.
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