Bank of America selected senior executive Brian Moynihan '81 as CEO in December. Moynihan took over earlier this month as the country's largest bank faced large losses from the repayment of federal loans and continued trouble in consumer loan repayments.
While facing the difficult economic times that the bank has ahead, Moynihan told The Herald he hopes to "continue to do a great job for consumers and for our employees," adding that "if we can be good at both of those, we can also do a good job for our shareholders."
Following a rigorous search that attracted much speculation, the bank's board of directors elected Moynihan after vetting several other candidates from inside and outside Bank of America, according to a statement from the bank. Moynihan previously worked as the bank's president of global corporate and investment banking.
The search for a new CEO began after previous CEO Ken Lewis unexpectedly announced his retirement last September following Bank of America's highly criticized takeover of Merrill Lynch.
Bank of America posted a $5.2 billion loss for the fourth quarter of 2009. The majority of the loss resulted from a $4 billion repayment that the bank made to the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
As high unemployment continues to hamper Americans' abilities to pay back credit card debts and mortgages, Bank of America will continue facing losses, Moynihan said.
"Our company continues to get better on credit," he said, "but we still have elevated credit losses due to unemployment."
Moynihan said he hopes that under his leadership, the bank can continue to "do our part to get the economy back on speed and help the recovery."
While at Brown, Moynihan majored in history and headed the men's rugby team. After graduating, Moynihan earned a law degree from the University of Notre Dame and worked as a lawyer in Providence. He then joined FleetBoston, a Massachusetts-based bank that Bank of America later acquired.
Of his time at Brown, Moynihan recollected, "I think the number-one great thing was that they taught you critical thinking."
