Bank of America announced the names of the senior business heads for its corporate, commercial and investment banking operations on Thursday in an internal memo, obtained by Reuters. The changes go into effect after the company completes its acquisition of Merrill Lynch, which goes to a vote among shareholders at both companies on Dec. 5.

Greg Fleming, Merrill’s president and chief operating officer, is expected to become the combined companies’ head of global corporate, commercial and investment banking.

Mr. Fleming will report to John Thain, Merrill’s current chief executive who last month accepted the position as the head of the combined companies’ global banking, securities and wealth management operations.

Under Mr. Fleming will be Brian Brille, from Bank of America, who will oversee corporate and investment banking in the Americas.

via BofA Names Top Banking Business Heads - Mergers, Acquisitions, Venture Capital, Hedge Funds — DealBook - New York Times

zyakaira notes:

It seems to be ill advised and a big mis-step given the record of failures of post merger integration. If the bank does have any strategy behind this seeming mish-mash attempt to cobble together two different pieces, the same should have been time-released to the market. Such arbitrary actions of appointment will only go on to add to an ugly year that was 2008. Mergers are sensitive to cultures and profit making structures already n place and these one-off actions are least likely to ensure any semblance of sanity on their strategy and operations.