Bank of America Merrill Lynch names duo to head investment banking

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has promoted Diego De Giorgi and Karim Assef to co-heads of global investment banking as the group looks to the US, Latin America and dormant product lines to fuel the next phase of growth in the division.

The appointments of Mr De Giorgi, a Goldman Sachs veteran who joined BofA in 2013 and Mr Assef, who has been at the bank for almost two decades, were announced in an internal memo on Wednesday. London-based Mr De Giorgi was previously co-head of the lender's Europe Middle East and Africa corporate and investment banking, while New York-based Mr Assef was previously global head of investment banking coverage.

"These appointments reflect the evolving landscape of investment banking," Christian Meissner, the bank's head of global corporate and investment banking told the Financial Times. "Our clients are increasingly global, have diverse business needs, and look to us as a trusted partner to provide both the expertise and innovation to help them succeed."

With investment banking income of $6.1bn last year, BofA is one of the world's largest investment banks. Dealogic figures released on Wednesday show it ranks number two in global and Emea mergers and acquisitions. The bank is also in the news for advising Shell on its £47bn takeover of BG Group.

The bank significantly scaled up its investment bank in Europe and Asia in the past couple of years, with key hires such as Alex To, head of investment banking for China, and Neil Kell, chairman of international equity capital markets in Hong Kong, who moves to London next year.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr De Giorgi and Mr Assef hinted other geographies would drive future growth.

"We've got some growth still ahead of us in Latin America. We've already made a big investment there and will continue to do so," said Mr Assef. "There is still investment to be made here in the US, specifically in terms of continuing to build our M&A and equity franchises. I wouldn't say we have underinvested but we certainly have a mandate to continue to grow."

The duo's to-do list also includes positioning the bank to take advantage of growth in areas that went quiet during the crisis. "Things like the derivative businesses have been dormant for a long time because we've been in an area of low equity volatility, low currency volatility and low rates volatility. Is that going to continue? Chances are not," said Mr De Giorgi.

He believes the US's unwinding of monetary stimulus will trigger volatility and points to market reaction to Switzerland's unwinding of a currency peg as evidence that "volatility lies around the corner".

BofA is also putting more resources into infrastructure finance for established assets, an area the bank expects to become more active over the coming years, and is talking to its financial institutions clients about packaging assets that will be eligible for the European Central Bank's securitisation programme.

Mr De Giorgi said it was an open question as to whether the current M&A cycle would lose support or whether activity would hit previous peaks. "For us, the key has been the balance in our business," said Mr Assef. "It's a fool's errand to try to predict cycles over a long period of time. This is a platform that has to thrive and grow in different environments . . . so no matter what type of environment we find ourselves in, we continue to be a dominant player."

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