By James Sterngold
Continuing its long battle to thin down and simplify its
operations, Bank of America Corp. announced Thursday that it has
named its chief risk officer, Terry Laughlin, to a newly created
position as president of strategic initiatives.
In his new role, Mr. Laughlin will continue to report to the
bank's chief executive officer, Brian Moynihan. According to a
press release by the bank, Mr. Laughlin will work on "the company's
program to serve customers and clients" as well as overseeing the
company's continuing efforts to "reduce complexity" and "simplify
work flow."
Challenged by a weak revenue environment and low interest rates,
big banks, including Charlotte-based Bank of America, have been
pushing to grow their profitability by cutting costs and
simplifying operations.
Bank of America earlier this month said it set aside a further
$6 billion for potential costs related to financial-crisis-era
litigation, dragging its first-quarter results into the red. That
news surprised and disappointed shareholders, many of whom had
hoped the era of massive legal reserves had ended.
Still, the bank has made progress since 2010, when it was
recovering from the severe problems of the financial crisis. Then,
it initiated efforts to reorganize its management, eliminate as
many as 30,000 jobs, cut about $5 billion in costs and exit some
businesses.
The bank has said that, having cut about $8 billion in expenses
and thousands of jobs, it is now focusing more on improving
efficiencies within the bank's operations to make them function
more smoothly, opening the door to improved profitability. That is
what Mr. Laughlin, 59 years old, is expected to focus on.
Mr. Laughlin had served as chief risk officer since the middle
of 2011, a move that occurred after Bruce Thompson became chief
financial officer.
Mr. Laughlin will be replaced as chief risk officer by Geoffrey
Greener, 49. Mr. Greener had been in charge of insuring that the
bank complies with banking capital regulations, the bank said.
In taking on the chief risk officer role, Mr. Greener starts in
a position that has grown significantly in importance with the many
new post-financial crisis banking regulations. He will report to
Mr. Moynihan. In his previous role, Mr. Greener reported to the
bank's chief financial officer.
John Kell contributed to this article
Write to James Sterngold at james.sterngold@wsj.com
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