No Bull: Bank of America Keeps Merrill Name

Bank of America Corp. will use the Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. name and bull logo for its wealth-management and brokerage divisions, the bank said.

The combined wealth-management and financial-adviser business will be called Merrill Lynch Wealth Management.

The merged corporate, commercial, investment-banking and capital-markets businesses will be branded as Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

"Our research showed that while the Bank of America brand dominated the consumer, small-business and commercial businesses, the Merrill Lynch brand dominated the wealth-management and brokerage business, and each brought strengths to the corporate and institutional businesses, the combined brands tested stronger domestically and globally than either one on its own," BofA chief marketing officer Anne Finucane wrote in a memo to employees.

Bank of America completed its purchase of Merrill Lynch on New Year's Day, making it the largest bank in the country, with about $2.7 trillion in assets.

When the all-stock acquisition was announced in mid-September, it was valued at $50 billion. But the deal's value dropped to less than $20 billion along with BofA's stock price.

by BizJournals.com

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