Bank of America Corp. Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan said the lender plans to again double its team of investment bankers focused on middle-market clients, after kicking off a push in that business to help counter a broader deal slump.
(Bloomberg) — Bank of America Corp. Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan said the lender plans to again double its team of investment bankers focused on middle-market clients, after kicking off a push in that business to help counter a broader deal slump.
“We’ve basically doubled the size of that team, and we’ll double it again,” Moynihan said on a call with analysts after reporting earnings that beat expectations in a sluggish market for investment banking. “It’s that kind of opportunity.”
The lender is seizing on heightened activity in middle-market dealmaking to help offset a persistent deal slump. Earlier this year, Bank of America urged some staffers to take new roles serving middle-market clients to match the rising demand.
The bank said fees from investment banking were $1.2 billion for the quarter, up 2% from the same period a year earlier.
Read More: BofA Encourages Bankers to Take New Roles Serving Middle Market
While the middle-market push is helping the firm keep investment banking fees roughly flat in recent quarters, executives said they don’t have a clear view on when broader market activity will rebound. Clients are looking for macroeconomic and geopolitical certainty, something that’s notably lacking, Chief Financial Officer Alastair Borthwick said.
“Investment banking can come back very, very quickly,” Borthwick said on the call. “It’s just that we’ve grown tired of predicting when that might be.”
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