Bank of America Appoints Greg Ransom Global Head of Equity Research; Dennis Coleman Named Global Head of High Grade Debt Research

NEW YORK, Aug. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Bank of America today announced that Greg Ransom has assumed the role of Global Head of Equity Research and reports to Paula Dominick, Global Head of Research. Dennis Coleman, who was most recently a Senior Debt Research Analyst at Bank of America, replaces Ransom as Global Head of High Grade Debt Research and will also report to Dominick. These appointments will help build and maintain Bank of America's Research platform as one of the leading franchises on Wall Street.

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Ransom joined Bank of America in 2005, as Global Head of High Grade Debt Research and a member of the Basic Industries High Grade Research team. He has been named to Institutional Investor's "All-America Research Team" for the past several years. Before joining Bank of America, he was a senior fixed income research analyst at JPMorgan Chase covering the Basic Industries sector.

"Greg's diverse experience and outstanding reputation among the investment community make him ideally suited to assume leadership of the Department," said Dominick. "He will work closely with our partners in Sales and Trading to more fully integrate Research into our broader Equities platform. We look forward to his leadership and are confident he will continue building on the great momentum we enjoy today."

For the past 10 years, Dennis Coleman has covered the Energy, Pipeline and Master Limited Partnership sectors. He has been named to Institutional Investor's "All-America Fixed-Income Research Team" for the past five years.

Dominick added, "Dennis is a highly experienced, well respected analyst whose natural leadership abilities will suit him well in our continued drive to create a first rate High Grade Research platform," Dominick said.

Bank of America's Equity Research Department is comprised of 66 publishing analysts covering 74 sub-sectors and more than 900 stocks. The Bank's Debt Research Department is comprised of 33 publishing analysts covering 45 sub- sectors. In recent years, Bank of America's Research platform has enjoyed increased recognition by the institutional investor community for the quality of its investment research, underscored by a jump from eleventh to sixth place over the last two years in the Institutional Investor ranking of Wall Street equity research firms, as well as a rise from tenth to fifth place in the ranking of debt research departments over the same period.

About Bank of America

Bank of America is one of the world's largest financial institutions, serving individual consumers, small and middle market businesses and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial products and services. The company's Global Corporate and Investment Banking group (GCIB) focuses on companies with annual revenues of more than $2.5 million; middle-market and large corporations; institutional investors; financial products and services. The company's Global Corporate and Investment Banking group (GCIB) focuses on companies with annual revenues of more than $2.5 million; middle-market and large corporations; institutional investors; financial institutions; and government entities. GCIB provides innovative services in M&A, equity and debt capital raising, lending, trading, risk management, treasury management and research. Bank of America serves clients in 175 countries and has relationships with 98 percent of the U.S. Fortune 500 companies and 80 percent of the Global Fortune 500. Many of the bank's services to corporate and institutional clients are provided through its U.S. and UK subsidiaries, Banc of America Securities LLC and Banc of America Securities Limited. For additional information, visit http://www.bankofamerica.com/