Abigail with attitude: Bashful Brian grows into top job at BAML
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Opinion

Abigail with attitude: Bashful Brian grows into top job at BAML

Is Bank of America on an upward trajectory? Am I the only person to notice that Bank of America’s economists were a lone voice insisting that the Federal Reserve would not taper in September? Nice call BAML!

Moreover, BAML will be one of the bookrunners for the Twitter flotation. The firm played a bigger role in the Verizon deal, where it acted as an underwriter for the financing package. BAML also had a top-line position in the public-to-private deal for Dell, while in Europe the bank underwrote the £3.2 billion institutional placement of part of the UK government’s stake in Lloyds Bank.

I was thus not surprised to see Brian Moynihan, the chief executive of Bank of America, purring like the proverbial Cheshire cat, as he gave a joint interview to CNBC with the Sage of Omaha, Warren Buffett. All I can say is that bashful Brian has grown into the top job. He now brims with confidence and seems a different man from the diffident, gauche underling who inherited, almost by default, Ken Lewis’ mantle. Moynihan, for so long the underdog in the US bank pecking order, might permit himself a wry smile when he thinks of the bog into which JPMorgan’s chief, Jamie Dimon, has slithered. Increasingly, photographs of Dimon show the banker looking chastened and harassed. His face sags and the bags under his eyes are pronounced, hinting at a lack of sleep.

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