(November 10) – “Bank of America, the second biggest U.S. bank, has taken another significant step in the building of its investment banking operations in Europe with the recruitment of 29 analysts and equity salesmen,” writes Charles Pretzlik in The Financial Times this morning.

“The move comes shortly after the bank took its first steps into the European corporate advisory and mergers and acquisitions business by hiring five telecommunications bankers from HSBC and another banker from Morgan Stanley Dean Witter.

“Of the 23 equity analysts it has hired, 19 are from Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette.
Five of the six sales people it has hired are also from DLJ, which last month was bought by Credit Suisse and already has a large equity research department.

“Bank of America began building its equities platform in January with the construction of its operations and settlement system. The business began operating in May, but the latest recruits are the first equity analysts to be brought on board.

“They include Chris Williams, covering financial services; William Laurent, covering telecommunications; and Nick Fothergill, covering aerospace, defence and international satellites. Sean Eddie, a retail analyst at CSFB, is moving to cover retail.

“The new recruits also include Steve Oldfield, a technology analyst who is joining from Wit Soudview Europe, the online investment banking start-up he joined six months ago from Schroders.

“Stephen Kendall, head of European equities, said: ‘Our research platform builds on our trading and sales trading capabilities and establishes Bank of America as a fully-fledged player in the European equity markets. We will also be extending our coverage into insurance, energy and utilities.’

“Bank of America has had a London presence for 10 years and already has a fixed income department as well as derivatives and foreign exchange businesses.

The bank is believed to have looked briefly at Charterhouse Securities, the firm which was bought by ING Barings after the takeover of Credit Commercial de France by HSBC earlier this year.