Wealth management

(To see this graphic in full, click on the image in the box to the right.)

U.S. Bancorp has announced the hiring of Timothy Leach to be the chief investment officer of its wealth management group.

Babson Capital Management LLC, a Springfield, Mass., investment manager, announced it has bought Murray Capital Management Inc.'s distressed-debt management business.

After reporting a net loss for the quarter due to an increase in its provisioning for problems in its Southern California and Florida loan portfolios, a top executive at Boston Private Financial Holdings Inc. said Wednesday that the company expects more chargeoffs because of difficult lending conditions in both regions.

Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., the New York investment banking and securities arm of Deutsche Bank AG, said it had promoted Rob Ebert to head of equity sales for the Americas, in its institutional-client group.

Sun Life Financial Inc.'s U.S. division has promoted Michael E. Shunney to president of Sun Life Financial Distributors Inc., its wholesale annuity distribution arm.

Everything from prudent planning to a little bit of luck helped community bank wealth management departments hold up in the tough market conditions last year, but some say they could have a harder time this year.

Putnam Investments said it had hired Carroll Shipman to be a senior vice president of regional 401(k) sales.

BMO Capital Markets, the investment and corporate banking arm of Toronto's Bank of Montreal, has signed a definitive agreement to buy Griffin, Kubik, Stephens & Thompson Inc. in Chicago.

Vanguard Group, a Valley Forge, Pa., fund company, has announced the introduction of three managed payout funds.

Jackson National Life Insurance Co., a Lansing, Mich., subsidiary of London's Prudential PLC, has announced that it generated $3.5 billion of sales and deposits, including $2.7 billion of retail sales and deposits, in the first quarter.

(To see this graphic in full, click on the image in the box to the right.)

The French bank BNP Paribas SA is in advanced talks to buy the equities prime brokerage unit of Bank of America Corp., the Financial Times reports online Monday, citing unnamed sources, in a move that would boost the French bank's U.S. presence and let the Charlotte company scale down its investment banking business.

Third in a series

Wilmington Trust Corp. posted a 3.7% drop in first-quarter net income from a year earlier, to $41.4 million, as a result of surging credit costs and lower interest rates.

Bank of America Corp. hired Claire Huang as the head of marketing for its global wealth and investment management division.

Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. posted its third quarterly loss in a row Thursday and said it would cut another 4,000 jobs, as damage from a poorly managed plunge into risky credit market activities under its previous chief executive continued to hurt U.S. brokers.

After Bank of New York Mellon Corp. posted its second consecutive quarter of writedowns related to subprime mortgage investments, its top executive said the company wants to take a “laser focus” on its asset management and servicing businesses and plans to continue pruning units that fall outside those circles.