BofA names investment banking chief
BANK of America Merrill Lynch has appointed the Austrian-born former Lehman Brothers banker Christian Meissner to head up its investment banking operations.
Bank of America, which has gradually taken Merrill Lynch forwards after a rocky start for the merged operation, will be hoping that Meissner can at least consolidate on recent gains.
Since joining from Nomura in 2010, Meissner has hired widely and helped take Merrill Lynch up in some of the much-focused-on league tables. For example, Merrill has gone from number 10 to number six in EMEA investment banking fees and from 12 to nine in Dealogic’s latest mergers and acquisitions table.
Meissner was given the task of upgrading the talent base in the investment bank following a wave of departures after the merger.
He has hired a number of senior bankers including Adrian Mee, head of international M&A and Julian Mylchreest, co-head of global energy and power.
Although its relative performance has shown signs of improvement, Meissner will be expected to make cost cuts unless market conditions start to improve quickly.
Like all investment bank,s Merrill Lynch has been hit by volatile markets, but already this year the bank has taken a lead role on one of the most crucial fund-raisings for some time, the UniCredit rights issue.