NEW YORK/TOKYO: Bank of America, the second-biggest US bank by assets, hired John Binnie from Moelis & Co as vice-chairman of its investment banking team that advises financial companies.

Binnie will be based in New York and report to Bill Egan, head of the financial institutions group, according to an internal memo obtained by Bloomberg News. John Yiannacopoulos, a spokesman for the North Carolina-based lender, confirmed the memo’s contents.

Bank of America is the third-ranked adviser on mergers and acquisitions involving financial companies this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. There have been US$334.5 billion of such deals announced this year, up from US$326.4 billion in the first half of 2012, the data show.

Binnie, who began his career at Salomon Brothers in 1985, has previously served as head of diversified financials group at Morgan Stanley, according to the memo. He was co-head of the bank and diversified financials group at Citigroup before that, and joined Moelis in 2009.

Binnie advised on reinsurer Transatlantic Holdings’ sale to Alleghany Corp for more than US$3 billion, which was completed this year, and GLG Partners’ sale to Man Group, according to the memo.

In Tokyo, Barclays hired Takeshi Shoji, a former employee at Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch, as a director at its Japan investment banking unit.

Shoji joined Barclays Securities Japan on June 30 and will cover the insurance sector in the financial institutions department, the London-based bank said.

He was most recently a director for insurance-sector coverage at Merrill Lynch Japan Securities Co, according to the statement. Before that, Shoji worked for JPMorgan Chase i Japan, Barclays said.

Shoji’s experience will help Barclays serve clients seeking growth “through various types of deals including cross-border transactions,” said Tetsuya Kawano, vice-chairman and head of investment banking for Japan.

(Bloomberg)