(Bloomberg) – Bank of America Corp. is rebuilding the Indian investment banking team after a series of senior resignations and scrutiny of share sales, according to people familiar with the matter.
Wall Street companies are saying that they are negotiating with senior bankers at rival companies to fill key transaction consulting positions, including heads of their capital markets operations, and demanding reluctance to identify and discuss private information. The replacement reviewed its internal processes after allegedly violating stock sales regulations, so the replacement was put on hold earlier.
Bank of America is now seeking to scale its business and has completed a review of its process after naming its global equity research head Vikram Sahu as the leader of the new Indian state. The bank also chose Singapore-based Bank of America veteran Mandar Donde to lead its investment banking operations in South Asian countries since April.
BOFA’s Indian division suffered a major setback in November, when three top traders quit the company in an internal investigation into stock-related misconduct. They are the co-head of the company’s investment banking, the head of the global capital markets, and the director of the investment banking division.
The people said the investigation checked whether the company’s employees violated regulatory norms during the stock trading, including the sale of 1,5 billion rupees ($174 million) of shares of Aditya Birla Sun Life Asset Management Co., the People said.
According to the people, India’s market regulator – the Securities and Exchange Commission of India – sought details from Bank of America as early as September.
A BOFA spokesperson declined to comment, while a SEBI representative did not respond to a request for comment.
According to its website, Bank of America began operations in India in 1964, providing investment banking services to companies with revenues of more than $2 billion, financial institutions and government entities.
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