BofA appoints 334 new managing directors, down 8% from last year

By Saeed Azhar

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Bank of America on Monday promoted 334 employees to become managing directors, a cohort that was 8% smaller than in the previous year.

The new promotions included 75 investment bankers and 64 employees from the trading division.

For the fourth consecutive year, more than half of the group is comprised of women and people of color, a bank spokesperson said.

BofA also promoted managing directors in other areas, including research, wealth management and enterprise credit, a source familiar with the matter said.

Bloomberg reported the promotions earlier.

Last month, Goldman Sachs announced in an internal memo it will promote 608 executives to managing directors next year, fewer than the 643 senior bankers it elevated two years ago.

Bank of America, the second-largest U.S. lender, expects to outperform rivals on investment banking fees in the fourth quarter, its CEO Brian Moynihan said last week.

"We'll be at about $1 billion in fees this quarter," reflecting a low single-digit decline, Moynihan told investors at a conference. The industry-wide investment banking fee pool is expected to drop by 10% to 15%, he said.

Industry executives said dealmaking conditions have begun to improve, with some predicting a better outlook for strategic mergers and acquisitions at the Goldman Sachs U.S. Financial Services Conference last week.

(Reporting by Saeed Azhar in New York and Manya Saini in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur, Lananh Nguyen, Nick Zieminski and Aurora Ellis)