Banc of America Securities is taking, er, stock of its U.S. equities businesses. Last month the firm’s U.S. capital markets chief, Ciaran O’Kelly, was also given command of U.S. equity sales and trading. The move underscores BofA’s desire to grow its equity capital markets business -- which ranked eighth last year in U.S. dollar volume -- and compete with heavyweights like No. 1 Goldman Sachs. “That’s the aspiration,” says O’Kelly, 38.
BofA’s strengths include convertibles and equity derivatives; O’Kelly, who has experience in both capital markets and equities trading, will focus on strengthening the firm’s IPO and follow-on business, in part by hiring more staff. He joined BofA as chief of U.S. equity trading in 2002, after 11 years at Citigroup and its predecessor Smith Barney. In May he switched to heading ECM.
O’Kelly believes coordinating both sides of equities will help at a time when investment banks are expected to commit more capital to win deals. “A trading and risk management background is something we believe belongs in the capital markets spectrum,” he says
