Moynihan shuffles the deck at Bank of America, but Krawcheck stays put

Bank of America Corp. is shuffling its senior management team, moving its chief financial officer over to lead consumer and small business banking and naming a new chief risk officer.

The changes announced Tuesday come as new CEO Brian Moynihan seeks to overhaul the bank and lift it out of the slump caused by the recession and billions of dollars in soured loans.

Bank of America said CFO Joe Price will lead the consumer and small business unit, where he’ll be faced with bolstering the company’s bread-and-butter business of making loans. BofA lost more than $2.2 billion in the third quarter as bad debt kept rising as consumers lost their jobs and struggled to pay their bills.

The company said it would look outside the company for a replacement for Price, who will take over the job Moynihan had before he succeeded Ken Lewis as CEO on Jan. 1.

Starting Feb. 1, Neil Cotty, the chief accounting officer, will become interim CFO until a replacement is found, the bank said.

Price’s appointment caught some analysts by surprise.

“CFO to head of retail is not a usual move, but I know that (Price) is very well thought of by the board,” said Nancy Bush, managing member of NAB Research LLC in Annandale, N.J. “Maybe it’s a fresh pair of eyes on that business.”

As expected Gregory Curl, at one point considered a possible successor to Lewis, was moved out of his role as chief risk officer. Curl wasn’t given a specific title, and the bank said he’ll focus on “strategic partnerships.” It is expected that Curl will soon leave the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank.

Curl is being replaced as chief risk officer by Bruce Thompson, currently managing director of the bank’s global capital markets unit. The chief risk officer is in charge of managing the credit and operational risks across the bank’s varied businesses.

The bank also said:

—Sallie Krawcheck retains her position as head of Global Wealth and Investment Management.

—Barbara Desoer will continue to lead the Home Loans and Insurance businesses.

—Tom Montag remains head of Global Banking and Markets.

—David Darnell continues as head of Global Commercial Banking.

—Anne Finucane remains global strategy and marketing officer.

A big task for the bank’s new management team will be proving that the bank’s messy 2008 acquisition of investment bank Merrill Lynch was worth the money, banking analyst Bert Ely said.

“The key thing for BofA is … getting the people in place and having them do their job — particularly to have a successful integration of Merrill,” Ely said.

Despite the changes, Bush noted that Moynihan largely left intact the management team put in place by Lewis, who retired at the end of last year.

“I look at it as more continuity than shakeup,” Bush said. “They’re not new players. They’re just sitting in different chairs.”