BofA Pays to Keep Workers Amid Talent War Under New Leaders
BofA Can Pay to Keep Workers Amid War for Talent, Moynihan Says
(Bloomberg) -- Bank of America Corp. is generating enough capital that it can pay to retain employees at risk of being poached by competitors amid the battle for talent on Wall Street, Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan said.
“You have to win the war on talent, which we do,” Moynihan said Wednesday at his company’s 26th Annual Financials CEO Conference. Bank of America’s attrition rate is where it was in 2019, then the lowest in a decade, he said. “We’ve got plenty of capital, so it’s down to teammates and continuing to deploy them and doing the hard work.”
Financial firms have been boosting salaries for junior bankers and associates after an intense battle for talent broke out during the Covid-19 crisis. As dealmaking has surged to record levels during the pandemic, work has piled up, weighing on staffers, many of whom are stuck at home.
Bank of America was the first to raise salaries for junior analysts in the ongoing fight for talent. In August, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based company increased base pay again, boosting it to $100,000 from $95,000 for first-year analysts across its global corporate and investment banking, markets and research divisions.
This was Moynihan’s first public appearance since the bank announced its most significant leadership changes in more than a decade. The company is getting a new chief financial officer and elevating five executives to its senior management team.
“It’s a great team that’s been together working at this company for years,” Moynihan said at the conference Wednesday. The team will lead for “a decade or more ahead,” he said.
The shakeup paves the way for a new generation of leaders under Moynihan, who has expressed interest in staying in his post through the decade. It follows in the wake of last month’s announcement that Chief Operating Officer Thomas Montag, who was also responsible for the investment-banking operation, plans to retire at the end of the year.
The new leaders are younger, talented, diverse and have deep industry experience, Moynihan said.
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