By Svea Herbst-Bayliss, Saeed Azhar and Milana Vinn
NEW YORK, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Bank of America's top leaders had a problem in the first week of August. Veteran banker Amy Lissauer — one of the company's most senior female executives — was considering jumping to rival JPMorgan Chase, people familiar with the matter said.
Ultimately, the attempts by CEO Brian Moynihan and Faiz Ahmad, the co-head of global investment banking, to persuade Lissauer to stay were unsuccessful, the people added. But her
departure, following the loss of several other prominent dealmakers over the past year, rattled staff to the point where executives felt they had to respond, people familiar with the bank said.
Executive turnover is a fact of life on Wall Street, and banks routinely lose veteran dealmakers. But the losses, including three announced departures during the week of August 5, prompted BofA executives to reach out to staff to try to contain possible fallout.
The outreach underscored executives' concerns that a steady loss of senior rainmakers during a capital-markets boom could hurt morale and reinforce perceptions that the nation’s second-largest bank had fallen behind its rivals in investment banking, the people familiar with the matter said.
“We have strong momentum across our global business and represent clients in a lead advisory role in numerous industry defining transactions," a BofA spokesperson said in a statement to Reuters. "We have recruited dozens of senior bankers this year from our major competitors, reflecting the strength of our platform and the breadth of solutions to serve clients across the US and around the world."
COMPETITION INTENSIFIES
Bankers at rival Wall Street institutions have described BofA's banking staff as formidable competitors for merger deals and clients. But the bank ranks fourth on the Dealogic global league table for investment banking fees in 2025 and 2026, after the AI boom vaulted Morgan Stanley past BofA into third place, data and analytics company Dealogic said. In 2022, 2023 and 2024, Bank of America claimed the third spot behind JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs and ahead of Morgan Stanley, Dealogic said.
Meanwhile, a steady stream of departures over the past year has drawn attention. In late 2025, technology dealmaker Kevin Brunner, known for cultivating strong ties to software company Salesforce for over a quarter of a century at the bank, said he would join JPMorgan. David Fishman, who was Bank of America’s co-head of technology, media and telecom and a 16-year veteran, will join JPMorgan later this year. The week Lissauer departed, co-head of global investment banking Mike Joo and tech banker Ed Liu also left.
Lissauer's loss in particular was notable, as she was recognized as a leader in defending corporate clients against activist investors who seek managerial and strategic overhauls. And JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the US, had wanted to poach her for years, executives familiar with the bank's thinking said — and the company quickly publicized the hiring.
Keeping Lissauer was a priority at BofA, but a person familiar with the matter said her proposed package from JPMorgan was one BofA felt it could not match.
EXECUTIVES MOVE TO REASSURE STAFF
As word of the departures from early August spread, Ahmad, who was co-head of investment banking with Joo before his departure, sought to reassure staff at an August 10 meeting, said people who received the invitation to the in-person meeting.
More than 50 people, including vice presidents and directors, were encouraged to join the meeting in a conference room in the bank's Midtown Manhattan office building to discuss changes in the mergers and acquisitions group, people who received invitations said. Ahmad was joined at the event by other top bankers, including the chairmen of global M&A, Steven Baronoff and Patrick Ramsey.
Participants described executives promising that the bank is fully committed to climbing in the league tables, the competitive rankings that sort Wall Street banks, law firms, analysts and others by deal volume and transaction fees collected. One person said Bank of America is aiming for the top of the league tables and that the bank is hiring more senior bankers with a particular focus on technology.
"All of our investment banking groups have regularly scheduled weekly meetings to discuss topical matters and the market environment," the bank spokesperson said in the statement.
Matthew Koder, president of BofA's global corporate and investment banking unit, reinforced the message in an internal memo in August. Bank of America posted its second-highest investment banking fees ever in the first half of the year. Advisory and debt issuance fees were the highest for any first half since 2009.
"We continue to invest in outstanding talent at every level and are pleased to have welcomed more than 40 new managing directors" to the corporate and investment bank this year, Koder wrote, according to a copy of the memo reviewed by Reuters.
Bank of America senior hires this year have included veteran technology bankers Jason Rowe, Gary Kirkham and Richard Hardegree, and Bryce Dakin, who will join later this year. The bank also hired industrials banker George Murphy and Alban de La Sablière as vice chair of healthcare dealmaking in Europe, Middle East and Africa.
"Our senior managing director hires have outpaced departures," the BofA spokesperson said.
COMPENSATION WORRIES EMERGE
But bankers told Reuters they worried about the thinning out of the coverage bankers in New York who manage relationships with specific corporate clients and have strong connections to corporate America. The bankers noted much of the hiring has been centered in regional investment banking, a push led by Mike Joo, who also left in August.
Some bankers have also grumbled about the bank's pay and said this has been a factor in some departures. BofA's bonus structure for dealmakers, which increases deferred compensation in some cases, has given competitors such as JPMorgan and Citigroup room to poach bankers from BofA, several people said.
One person familiar with the matter acknowledged the bonus rules can be difficult for some bankers buying homes or paying tuition, but said the compensation structure is often not a deciding factor for senior hires.
Senior executives deny morale is low. Strong revenue, involvement in deals like Paramount Skydance buying Warner Bros Discovery, where it was an adviser, and aggressive hiring contribute to a buoyant mood, they say.
"Our people are seeing the benefits of the talented colleagues joining our firm, our investments in technology and the momentum we have with respect to our leading roles in marquee transactions," the BofA spokesperson said.
(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss, Saeed Azhar and Milana Vinn in New York; Editing by Colin Barr and Matthew Lewis)
