Bank of America Corp. has chosen a Salomon Smith Barney veteran to oversee distribution at its retail investment services arm.
Until last week Keith Winn was the director of sales and marketing at the investment banking subsidiary of Salomons Robinson-Humphrey. But last week SunTrust Banks Inc. bought Robinson-Humphreys investment banking and capital markets divisions, and on Aug. 13 Mr. Winn will join Banc of America Investment Services Inc. as its full-service brokerage executive.
Mr. Winn, 44, had been with Salomon Smith Barney and its predecessors for 20 years, starting as a broker.
In his new post he will oversee all retail distribution of Bank of Americas investment products and services and manage some 750 investment consultants in 340 offices nationwide. He will succeed David Bair, who retired earlier this year.
Mr. Winn is the latest in a string of Bank of America hires from Wall Street, some of them high-profile. Among them was Richard M. DeMartini, the chairman of Morgan Stanley Dean Witters international retail division, who was hired in January to head Bank of Americas asset management arm.
The Charlotte, N.C., company has also been revamping its investment services unit. It hired 200 licensed brokers in February and trained 1,000 additional platform employees to sell investment products in its bank branches.
There is significant opportunity within the existing brokerage platform and a substantial customer base to expand our capabilities to serve the investing needs of our clients by building full-service, advice-driven relationships, Mr. Winn said in a press release.
Henry Chip Dickson, a bank analyst with Lehman Brothers, said Mr. Winn may help Bank of America seem less like a traditional bank. Until now, he said, attempts to beef up its investment services unit have been merely OK.
But Bank of America will have to jostle for position with the likes rival First Union Corp., which has put a lot of effort into the investment businesses, said James Schutz, a bank analyst with Stephens Inc.
During the first quarter, consumer investment and brokerage services brought $379 million of revenue to Bank of America, 10% of total revenue. Investment services are not as big of a deal to the total company as they are at First Union, Mr. Schutz said.
Banc of America Investment Services Inc. has 925,000 account holders and manages more than $73 billion of assets.
