Anne Finucane, vice chairman of Bank of America, and Thomas Montag, chief operating officer and president of global banking and markets at Bank of America, will retire. Both executives are members of the company’s executive management team and report to Brian Moynihan, chairman and CEO. Finucane and Montag will remain in their roles until the end of 2021. Succession plans will be announced in the coming weeks.
Finucane, who is responsible for the company’s strategic positioning, sustainable finance, environmental, social and governance (ESG), capital deployment and public policy efforts, has held multiple roles at the bank since she joined its predecessor company, Fleet Bank, 26 years ago. She was chief marketing officer of Fleet and then at Bank of America for more than 10 years. During that time, Bank of America introduced a marketing data and analytics function. Finucane is the first woman to serve as a vice chairman of Bank of America and the first woman to serve as chairman of the board of Bank of America Europe, the company’s European banking subsidiary based in Ireland. In addition, she directed the development of the company’s ESG and sustainable finance work.
Finucane chairs Bank of America’s ESG committee and co-chairs the bank’s sustainable markets committee with Montag. She also oversaw the company’s creation last year of a $1.25 billion commitment to advance racial equality and economic opportunity over five years. She has been instrumental in supporting women leaders through training, access to capital and mentoring through many programs, including a partnership with Vital Voices and its Global Ambassadors program, the Tory Burch Foundation Capital Partnership and the Bank of America Institute for Women’s Entrepreneurship at Cornell, supporting 50,000 women entrepreneurs.
Following her retirement, Finucane will transition to a non-executive chairman role at Bank of America Europe and will move to a non-executive board member role at BofA Securities Europe. Also, she will become a member of the company’s global advisory council.
“Anne has been a trusted advisor and invaluable partner for many years,” Moynihan said. “From her time as one of the few senior women executives in financial services to today, she has provided unparalleled strategic vision, helping to make banking more transparent while serving as a tireless advocate for equality, sustainable energy, education and healthcare. While we will miss her insights and wisdom on the management team, I’m pleased that we will continue to benefit from the many relationships she has built over the years with key influencers through her continued leadership in Europe and her participation in the global advisory council.”
Montag joined the company in 2008 as executive vice president and head of global sales and trading at Merrill Lynch, prior to the company’s merger with Bank of America. Before that, Montag was with Goldman Sachs for 22 years, where he was co-head of the global securities business and a member of the company’s management committee.
In addition to his role as chief operating officer, Montag is responsible for all of the businesses that serve companies and institutional investors, including middle-market commercial and large corporate clients and institutional investor clients, including BofA Global Research and the global markets sales and trading businesses.
Under Montag’s leadership, Bank of America’s global banking and global markets businesses improved market share across all businesses, supporting 95% of U.S. Fortune 1000 companies. In 2020, the businesses under Montag’s leadership were responsible for nearly $38 billion in revenue, and in the first half of 2021, the global banking and global markets businesses were responsible for 46% of the company’s total revenues, which was up from 36% in 2009.
Montag is co-chair of Bank of America’s sustainable markets committee with Finucane. Since the committee was formed, the volume of sustainable markets business at the company has tripled. Montag is also the bank’s executive sponsor of the Hispanic Executive Leadership Council and he co-founded the bank’s Black Executive Leadership Council. He has driven increases in representation of diverse hires through campus recruiting programs and founded the Africa recruiting program for students in Ghana and Nigeria, initiated recruiting from Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria and, most recently, expanded recruiting to Tribal Campuses across the United States.
Following his retirement, Montag will become a member of the company’s global advisory council.
“Tom joined the company during one of the most challenging periods in financial services history and skillfully steered the business to be one of the few financial institutions that can help clients raise cash, move money, expand into new markets and manage risk in every major market around the world,” Moynihan said. “At the same time, he has been a champion and partner in our responsible growth operating model. Nowhere was this more evident than during the pandemic, when we provided billions of dollars in credit to commercial and corporate clients in the early days of the crisis and then helped them access permanent capital so they could continue to support the economy. We will remember Tom’s work ethic, innovative thinking and dedication to clients and teammates. Very few people have achieved as much business success as Tom and become equally well known globally by his clients. We wish him well as he enters a new chapter in his life.”
