ZURICH/LONDON (Reuters) – Bank of America Merrill Lynch has put its wealth management units outside the United States up for sale, three sources familiar with the situation said, hoping to bring in up to $3 billion for the sub-scale business
ZURICH/LONDON (Reuters) – Bank of America Merrill Lynch has put its wealth management units outside the United States up for sale, three sources familiar with the situation said, hoping to bring in up to $3 billion for the sub-scale business.
Bank of America is the world’s largest wealth manager, but its non-U.S. arm — which two of the sources said manages some $90 billion for rich clients — is not large enough to generate enough money for the bank.
“There is a lot of soul-searching going on by a lot of players as to what to do with their non-U.S. private banking operations,” said a fourth person, an investment banker who has knowledge of the financial sector.
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Bank of America declined to comment.
The second-largest bank has lagged peers in recovering from the financial crisis, largely because of huge losses and lawsuits tied to its 2008 acquisition of subprime mortgage lender Countrywide Financial.
Bank of America’s non-U.S. private banking business targets so-called “mass affluent” clients whose wealth is measured in hundreds of thousands of dollars, rather than super-rich private banking clients worth tens of millions.
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