Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) has decided to replace its chief financial officer, Bruce Thompson, according to the Wall Street citing an internal memo of the bank. BAC also disclosed that vice chairman David Darnell is retiring. Darnell administered the wealth-management segment of the bank.
The departure of 51 years old Thompson is surprise for many. He spent most of his tenure in BAC’s investment bank and was also among few executives considered as a possible successor to CEO Brian Moynihan. Recently, Thompson was among the senior executives who supervised the stress-test submissions of the bank to the Federal Reserve.
Following the financial crisis, stress tests are taken as key flash points for large banks, as the Fed uses them to assess the planning and resilience of a certain bank in a possible recession. In order to boost dividends or repurchase shares, banks usually must succeed in the Fed stress tests.
BAC stumbled in the test on three occasions in the last five years, recently in March when the company only got conditional authorization from the Fed. Last year, Moynihan asked Thompson at the shareholder meeting to get up and answer the queries from investors regarding the difficulties of stress-test.
The relationship between Thompson and Moynihan weakened in the past few months, according to the Wall Street citing a source close to matter. A person working closely with Thompson reported that he was longing for a job where he can work more closely with customers.
In June, Wall Street reported that Fed notified the bank it wasn’t doing sufficient to foresee issues with its stress-test submissions. The memo sent to bank employees on Wednesday stated that Mr. Thompson has decided to resign from his position.
Moynihan said in a statement on Wednesday that no finance executive across the globe in the past 10 years has deal with greater challenges and fulfilled his duties with as much courage and skill as Bruce Thompson.
