No more ‘Merrill Lynch’

Bank of America announced last week that it is dropping the name Merrill Lynch from its investment-banking arm, said Madeline Shi in BusinessInsider.com. The new rebranding “signals the end of an era.” Bank of America acquired Merrill Lynch in 2008, at the height of the financial crisis. Merrill was founded in 1914 and once was the world’s largest retail brokerage. Unlike Bear Stearns and Smith Barney, “whose names disappeared in the aftermath of the crisis,” Merrill managed to hold on to its name for over a decade. But now the investment bank and trading operations will be called “BofA Securities,” while the bank will keep “Merrill” as the brand for its wealth management business.