By Dakin Campbell Jan. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Bank of America Corp. Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan named finance chief Joe Price to head consumer banking, the biggest unit at the largest U.S. lender, seeking to curb losses in a $70 billion credit-card portfolio. Price will be president of the consumer, small-business and card-banking unit, and step aside as chief financial officer, according to a statement yesterday from the Charlotte, North Carolina-based company. That puts him in charge of 6,000 retail offices for Bank of America, which ranks first among U.S. lenders by deposits. “That unit is certainly the source of most of their credit issues,” said Blake Howells, an analyst at Becker Capital Management in Portland, Oregon. “If I am a bank CEO and have the capital I need I will be taking as many charges as I can in the fourth quarter and maybe even the first or second quarter.” Moynihan, 50, is putting his mark on the bank’s executive team after taking over from Kenneth D. Lewis at the start of this year. Price replaces Moynihan at the consumer unit, which has been a drag on results as the credit-card business has posted five straight quarterly losses totaling $4.7 billion. Bank of America has the highest credit-card default rate of any of the six-biggest U.S. card issuers, a distinction the lender has held since April. Moynihan said in an interview last week that card defaults are “still very high” and he’s “reworking” consumer lending. ‘Lot of Work to Do’ “There is in Bank of America no unit more important to its future than its retail bank,” said Gary Townsend, chief executive officer of Hill-Townsend Capital LLC, an investment firm in Chevy Chase, Maryland, that specializes in banks. “There’s a lot of work to do.” Bank of America fell 57 cents to $16.36 yesterday in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. It has climbed 43 percent in the past year. Moynihan is in a “transition period” that involves reducing expectations and writing down “anything that is remotely in question,” Oppenheimer & Co. analysts led by Chris Kotowski wrote in a report Dec. 18. “We would brace for adverse surprises,” they wrote. Later this month, Bank of America may report its third loss in the past five quarters, amounting to 51 cents a share, the average estimate of 18 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Last year’s takeover of Merrill Lynch & Co. helped bolster results. Price’s Role Price, 48, has held positions in finance, risk management and corporate strategy, and was often called upon by Lewis during conference calls and investor presentations to explain details of the bank’s latest results and ventures. An e-mail sent to him seeking comment wasn’t immediately returned. The change in roles doesn’t follow the traditional script often pursued by Wall Street executives, according to Nancy Bush, an independent bank analyst at NAB Research LLC. “A CFO does not normally make that kind of switch,” Bush said. “It’s a bit unusual, but my understanding is that Price is very well-thought-of by the board and I assume he’s very well-thought-of by Brian as well, and this will give him some additional experience.” Price became the finance chief on Jan. 1, 2007, when he replaced former CFO Al de Molina, who went on to run GMAC Inc. Price was listed by Lewis among internal candidates to replace him before Moynihan won the job. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte with a bachelor’s degree in accounting, according to a 2006 company statement. Management Team Moynihan made other moves yesterday, replacing Chief Risk Officer Greg Curl with global capital markets head Bruce Thompson. Curl, 61, who was also a CEO candidate last year, may leave the company, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing an interview with Moynihan. The new arrangement retains Sallie Krawcheck, 45, as president of the wealth management business, David Darnell at global commercial banking and Tom Montag, 52, as president of global banking and markets. Also kept on the executive team were Barbara Desoer, 57, the bank’s head of home loans and insurance and Ed O’Keefe, who will be general counsel. Neil Cotty will be CFO on an interim basis after Feb. 1, when Price relinquishes his role. The bank said it has launched an external search for a new CFO. The management team is made up mostly of familiar faces, “not necessarily the best people for the position,” Richard Bove, an analyst at Rochdale Securities LLC, said in a telephone interview. While that’s a negative, Moynihan “just got the job himself,” said Bove, who recommends buying the stock. “I don’t want to second-guess the guy. Let’s see what he does.” To contact the reporter on this story: Dakin Campbell in San Francisco at dcampbell27@bloomberg.net

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