Bank of America Elevates CEO Contenders in Management Shuffle

Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan said he plans to stay in his role through the next decade, or to 2030. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Key Points

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• Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan named two co-presidents and broadened the CFO’s role.
• Dean Athanasia and Jim DeMare were named co-presidents.
• Alastair Borthwick, the bank’s CFO, will take on an expanded role as executive vice president.

Bank of America Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan has named two longtime executives as co-presidents and plans to expand its chief financial officer’s role in the bank’s most significant set of senior management changes in four years.

The moves spotlight three leaders viewed internally and across the banking industry as potential successors to Moynihan, 65, who has run the second-largest U.S. lender since 2010.

In a memo describing the changes on Friday, Moynihan said he plans to stay in his role through the next decade, or to 2030, reiterating guidance he has shared with employees in recent years.

Moynihan said Dean Athanasia, who leads four of the bank’s eight lines of business as president of regional banking, and Jim DeMare, the president of global markets, will become co-presidents of the firm.

It is the first time under Moynihan’s tenure that the Charlotte-based bank has executives in the role of president. Alastair Borthwick, the bank’s finance chief, will take on an expanded role and add executive vice president to his title, the memo said.

A spokeswoman for Bank of America referred Barron’s to Moynihan’s memo, which the firm published as part of a press release.

In an age of long-serving Wall Street CEOs—a cohort of whom came to power in the wake of the 2007-2009 financial crisis—investors and analysts closely watch succession planning at the country’s biggest banks and asset-management firms.

For Bank of America, those plans have been less obvious to observers than they have been at competitors such as JPMorgan Chase, in part because the firm hasn’t held a regular investor day, Barron’s reported last year.

The firm’s announcement on Friday adds clarity around which senior leaders may be in a position to take over from Moynihan. The bank recently said it plans to hold an investor day in Boston in November, its first in more than a decade.

Some analysts also view Holly O’Neill, who runs two of the company’s business lines as president of consumer, retail, and preferred, as a potential CEO contender.

Since Moynihan became Bank of America’s CEO in January 2010, shares of the bank are up some 240%, underperforming both the S&P 500 —up some 500%—and rival JPMorgan Chase —up around 630%—in the same time.

Bank of America last announced a significant set of top leadership changes in 2021, when Borthwick was named finance chief and the longtime executive Thomas Montag left the company. Montag is now on the board of Goldman Sachs.

Write to Rebecca Ungarino at rebecca.ungarino@barrons.com