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Jeffrey Peek Named an Executive Vice Chairman at Bank of America

Jeffrey M. Peek, who once lost a race to become the chief executive of Merrill Lynch, is coming home, in a way.

Mr. Peek will become executive vice chairman of global corporate and investment banking at Bank of America, which bought Merrill Lynch during the financial crisis, according to an internal memorandum sent on March 31.

In his new role, Mr. Peek will focus mainly on working with banks, insurers and other financial institutions, according to the memo, which was written by Christian Meissner, Bank of America’s head of global corporate and investment banking.

He will start this summer and report to Mr. Meissner.

The move will be the latest career shift for Mr. Peek, who was most recently vice chairman of investment banking at Barclays. Most of his career was at Merrill Lynch, where he rose through the ranks, eventually overseeing operations like investment research and asset management.

He earned a spot on a short list of contenders to take over Merrill Lynch in the early 2000s, but he lost to a rival, E. Stanley O’Neal. He then had a brief stint at Credit Suisse First Boston.

But Mr. Peek is perhaps best known for his tenure at the CIT Group, a once-staid midmarket lender that he sought to build into a more serious challenger to better-known financial institutions.

Under him, the company moved to a splashy headquarters in Midtown Manhattan and expanded its offerings, including adding consumer loans. But the company ran aground shortly after the financial crisis, eventually filing for bankruptcy.

CIT has since rebounded and returned to the public markets, and it is now led by John A. Thain — who, as chief executive of Merrill Lynch, sold the business to Bank of America.

A spokesman for Bank of America confirmed the contents of the memo, which was previously reported by Bloomberg News.

Here is the full text of the memo from Mr. Meissner:

I am pleased to announce that Jeffrey Peek has been appointed executive vice chairman of Global Corporate & Investment Banking, focused primarily on the financial institutions space. He will join our firm in early summer, be based in New York and report to me. Jeffrey will be responsible for deepening key client relationships, driving growth through origination efforts and advisory services, and increasing collaboration across the firm to best serve our clients.

Jeffrey is a seasoned banker with more than 30 years experience and proven leadership skills. He joins us from Barclays where he served as vice chairman of Investment Banking. Prior to that, he worked at CIT Group as president and chief operating officer and was later promoted to CEO and chairman. He was vice chairman at Credit Suisse First Boston LLC and spent nearly 20 years at Merrill Lynch where he rose to the level of executive vice president of Merrill Lynch & Co., and served as head of Investment Banking and president of Merrill Lynch Investment Managers.

Please join me in welcoming Jeffrey back to the firm and wishing him much success in his new role.

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