Merrill Lynch's Wealth Management is the wealth management division of Bank of America. The company is headquartered in New York City, and occupies all 34 stories of 250 Vesey Street, part of the Brookfield Place complex, in Manhattan. Merrill Lynch employs over 15,000 financial advisors and manages $ 2.2 trillion in client assets.
This company has its origins in Merrill Lynch & amp; Co., Inc. which, prior to 2009, is publicly owned and traded on the New York Stock Exchange with the ticker symbol MER . Merrill Lynch & amp; Co agreed to be acquired by Bank of America on September 14, 2008, at the height of the Financial Crisis of 2008. The acquisition was completed in January 2009 and Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. merged into Bank of America Corporation in October 2013, although some Bank of America subsidiaries continue to carry the Merrill Lynch name, including broker-dealers Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & amp; Smith.
Video Merrill Lynch
History
Initial and initial history
The company was founded on January 6, 1914, when Charles E. Merrill opened Charles E. Merrill & Co. for business on 7th Street Wall in New York City. A few months later, Merrill's friend Edmund C. Lynch joined him, and in 1915 his name was officially converted into Merrill, Lynch & amp; Co. At that time, the company name included a comma between Merrill
In early history, Merrill, Lynch & amp; Co. made some successful investments. In 1921, the company purchased PathÃÆ' Â © Exchange, which later became RKO Pictures. In 1926, the company made the most significant financial investment at the time, purchased a controlling stake in Safeway, transformed a small grocery store into the country's third-largest grocery chain in the early 1930s.
In 1930, Charles Merrill led the company through a major restructuring, spinning the company's retail brokerage firm into E. A. Pierce & Co. focus on investment banking. Along with the business, Merrill also diverted most of its employees, including Edmund C. Lynch and Winthrop H. Smith. Charles Merrill receives a minority interest in E.A. Stab in a transaction. Throughout the 1930s, E.A. Pierce remains the largest US broker. The company, led by Edward A. Pierce, Edmund Lynch and Winthrop Smith will also prove one of the most innovative in the industry, introducing IBM machines into business records. In addition, in 1938, E.A. Pierce will control the largest wire network with a private network of more than 23,000 miles of telegraph cables. These cables are commonly used for trade execution.
Despite its strong position in the market, E.A. Pierce was struggling financially in the 1930s and slightly capitalized. After the death of Edmund C. Lynch in 1938, Winthrop Smith began discussions with Charles E. Merrill, who had minority interests in E.A. Penetrate the possibility of merging the two companies. On April 1, 1940, Merrill Lynch, joined Edward A. Pierce E. A. Pierce & amp; Co. and Cassatt & amp; Co., a brokerage firm based in Philadelphia where both Merrill Lynch and E.A. Pierce has an interest. and briefly known as Merrill Lynch, E. A. Pierce, and Cassatt. The company became the first on Wall Street to publish its annual fiscal report in 1941.
The following year, in 1941, Merrill Lynch, E. A. Pierce and Cassatt joined Fenner & amp; Beane, an investment bank and a commodity company based in New Orleans. Throughout the 1930s, Fenner & amp; Beane is consistently the second largest securities company in the US. The combined company, which became a clear leader in securities brokers in the US, was named Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & amp; Beane.
In 1952, the company formed Merrill Lynch & amp; Co as the parent company and officially entered after nearly half a century as a partnership. On December 31, 1957, The New York Times called it "a little loud from Americana" and said "After sixteen years of popularization, Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner, and Beane will change it - and thus honor the person who has been responsible for creating the name of the intermediary's home section of the American story, "Winthrop H. Smith, who has run the company since 1940. Merger makes the company the world's largest securities company, with offices in more than 98 cities and membership in 28 exchanges. At the beginning of the company's fiscal year on March 1, 1958, the company's name became 'Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & amp; Smith 'and the company became a member of the New York Stock Exchange Board.
In 1964, Merrill Lynch acquired C. J. Devine & amp; A leading dealer dealer at US Government Securities. The merger coincided with the death of Christopher J. Devine in May 1963. C. J. Devine & amp; Mitra Co, known as "The Devine Boys", formed Merrill Lynch Government Securities Inc., giving the company a strong presence in the government securities market. The government securities business brought Merrill Lynch the necessary influence to build many unique money market products and bond mutual fund products, which were responsible for much of the company's growth in the 1970s and 1980s.
In 2003, Merrill Lynch became the second largest shareholder for the Japanese animation studio, TMS Entertainment. In a report to the Treasury, the Merrill Lynch group said it had acquired 7.54 percent stake in TMS by buying about 3.33 million shares. Merrill Lynch bought the shares solely for investment purposes and did not intend to gain control of the company's management.
Rise to fame
Merrill Lynch became famous on the strength of its brokerage network (15,000 in 2006), sometimes referred to as a "thunderstorm", allowing it to place underwrote securities directly. In contrast, many established Wall Street companies, such as Morgan Stanley, rely on an independent brokerage group to place securities under their underwrote. By the end of 1970, it was known as the "Catholic" Wall Street company. The company went public in 1971 and became a multinational company with over US $ 1.8 trillion in client assets, operating in more than 40 countries worldwide. In 1977, the company introduced the Cash Management Account (CMA), which allowed customers to sweep all their cash into money market mutual funds, and included the ability to check writing and credit cards. Fortune magazine calls it "the most important financial innovation in years". In 1978, he significantly strengthened the underwriting business by acquiring White Weld & amp; Co., a small but prestigious investment bank. Merrill Lynch is renowned for its Global Private Client service and its strong sales force. Orange County Settlement
Merrill Lynch lives in Orange County, California, with $ 400 million to settle allegations that he sold offensive and risky investments to former district treasurer Robert Citron. Citron lost $ 1.69 billion, forcing the county to file for bankruptcy in December 1994. The country sued a dozen or more securities firms, advisors and accountants, but Merrill settled without acknowledging liability in June 1998. The county was able to recover about $ 600 Ã , Million total, including $ 400 million from Merrill.
Subprime mortgage crisis
In November 2007, Merrill Lynch announced it would write a $ 8.4 billion loss in losses related to the national housing crisis, and would remove E. Stanley O'Neal as its chief executive. O'Neal had earlier approached Wachovia's bank for the merger, without prior Board approval, but talks ended after O'Neal's dismissal. Merrill Lynch named John Thain as his new CEO that month. In his early days working in December 2007, Thain made a change in Merrill Lynch's top management, announcing that he would bring former NYSE New York Stock Exchange colleagues such as Nelson Chai as CFO and Margaret D. Tutwiler as head of communications. Later that month, the company announced it would sell its commercial finance business to General Electric, and would sell its main shares to Temasek Holdings, a Singapore government investment group, in an effort to raise capital. The deal earned more than $ 6 billion.
In July 2008, Thain announced a $ 4.9 billion fourth quarter loss for the company from default and bad investments in the ongoing mortgage crisis. In one year between July 2007 and July 2008, Merrill Lynch lost $ 19.2 billion, or $ 52 million per day. The company's stock price also declined significantly during that time. Two weeks later, the company announced the sale of hedge funds and certain securities in an effort to reduce their exposure to mortgage-related investments. Temasek Holdings agreed to buy the fund and increase its investment in the company by $ 3.4 billion.
Andrew Cuomo, New York Attorney General, threatened to sue Merrill Lynch in August 2008 for misinterpretation of the risk of mortgage-backed securities. A week earlier, Merrill Lynch had offered to buy back $ 12 billion in auction-level debt and said it was shocked by the lawsuit. Three days later, the company froze recruitment and revealed that the company has charged nearly $ 30 billion in losses to their subsidiaries in the UK, freeing them from taxes in that country. On August 22, 2008, CEO John Thain announced an agreement with the Massachusetts State Secretary to buy back all auction-level securities from customers with less than $ 100 million in deposits at the company, beginning in October 2008 and expanding in January 2009. On September 5 2008, Goldman Sachs downgraded Merrill Lynch's shares to "sell-offs" and warned of further losses at the company. Bloomberg reported in September 2008 that Merrill Lynch had lost $ 51.8 billion in mortgage-backed securities as part of a subprime mortgage crisis.
CDO controversy
Merrill Lynch, like many other banks, became heavily involved in the mortgage-backed debt market (CDO) in the early 2000s. According to an article in Credit Magazine, Merrill's rise as a CDO market leader began in 2003 when Christopher Ricciardi brought his CDO team from Credit Suisse First Boston to Merrill. In 2005, Merrill published an ad behind the magazine Derivatives Week, touting the fact that Global Markets and Investing Group were "the global CDO major shooter in 2004". To provide ready mortgage supply for CDO, Merrill purchased First Franklin Financial Corp., one of the largest subprime lenders in the country, in December 2006. BusinessWeek will then illustrate how between 2006 and 2007, Merrill is " lead underwriter "on 136 CDOs worth $ 93 billion. By the end of 2007, the value of the CDO had collapsed, but Merrill had withheld some of them, creating billions of dollars in losses to the company. In mid-2008, Merrill sold a $ 30.6 billion CDO for Lone Star Funds for $ 1.7 billion in cash and $ 5.1 billion in loans.
In April 2009, the MBIA bond insurer sued Merrill Lynch for fraud and five other violations. This is related to the creditworthy swap "insurance" contract that Merrill bought from MBIA on four Merrill mortgage-based debt obligations. These are the CDO "ML-Series", Broderick CDO 2, CDO I CDO 3, CDO 3, and CDO Newbury Street. MBIA claims, inter alia, that Merrill deceives MBIA about the quality of this CDO, and that it uses the complex nature of certain CDOs (CDOs squared and cubed) to hide the problems it knows in securities that the CDO is based on. However, in 2010 Judge Bernard Fried outlawed all but one charge: a claim by MBIA that Merrill had breached the contract by promising a CDO worth AAA ratings when, allegedly, in fact they were not. When the CDO loses its value, MBIA ultimately owes Merrill a large sum of money. Merrill denies MBIA claims.
In 2009 Rabobank sued Merrill for a CDO named Norma. Rabobank later claimed that his case against Merrill was very similar to the SEC fraud charges against Goldman Sachs and Abacaus CDOs. Rabobank alleged that a hedge fund named Magnetar Capital had chosen assets to go to Norma, and was alleged to bet against them, but Merrill did not tell Rabobank about this fact. Instead, Rabobank alleged that Merrill said it was the NIR Group choosing assets. When the value of CDO is reduced, Rabobank is abandoned because Merrill has a large sum of money. Merrill argues Rabobank's argument, with a spokesman claiming "Both of these are unrelated and current claims are not only unfounded but not included in the Rabobank lawsuit filed nearly a year ago".
Sales to Bank of America
Significant losses are caused by a decline in the value of large and unprotected mortgage portfolios in the form of guaranteed debt obligations. Loss of trading partner confidence in Merrill Lynch's solvency and the ability to refinance short-term debt eventually led to its sale. During the week of September 8, 2008, Lehman Brothers suffered severe liquidity pressures, with questionable survival. If Lehman Brothers fails, investors fear that contagion could spread to other lucrative investment banks. (Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on September 15, 2008, after government officials could not find a merger partner for it.)
On Sunday, September 14, 2008, Bank of America announced it was in talks to buy Merrill Lynch for $ 38.25 billion. The Wall Street Journal reported later that Merrill Lynch was sold to Bank of America for 0.8595 shares of Bank of America common stock for every common share of Merrill Lynch, or about US $ 50 billion or $ 29 per share. This price represents 70.1% premium during the closing price of 12 September or 38% premium above Merrill's book value of $ 21 per share, but that also means a 61% discount from the price in September 2007. Congressional testimony by CEO of Bank of America Kenneth Lewis, as well as internal emails issued by the House Supervisory Committee, point out that Bank of America is threatened with the dismissal of management and board of Bank of America as well as damaging ties between federal banks and regulators if Bank of America is not through Merrill Lynch acquisition.
In March 2009 it was reported that in 2008, Merrill Lynch received billions of dollars from its insurance agreement with AIG, including $ 6.8 billion of funds provided by US taxpayers to rescue AIG.
Maps Merrill Lynch
Setup action
Analyst Research Completion
In 2002, Merrill Lynch paid a $ 100 million fine to publish misleading research. As part of an agreement with New York Attorney General and other state securities regulator, Merrill Lynch agreed to increase research disclosure and work to separate research from investment banking.
A famous Merrill Lynch analyst named Henry Blodget writes in a corporate email where Blodget gives an assessment of the stock as opposed to what Merrill publishes. In 2003, he was charged with civilian securities fraud by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. He settled without recognizing or denying allegations and then banned from the securities industry to live. He paid a $ 2 million fine and a $ 2 million fine.
The then CEO, David Komansky, said, "I want... to apologize openly to our clients, our shareholders and our employees," because the company did not achieve professional standards in research.
Enron/Merrill Lynch Nigerian barge
In 2004, Merrill executives' confidence marked the only example in Enron's investigation in which the government criminally accused officials of banks and securities firms suspected of helping the energy giant commit its accounting fraud. The case revolves around a 1999 transaction involving Merrill, Enron, and the sale of some offshore electricity barges off Nigeria. The accusations allege that 1999's sale of interest in Nigerian energy barges by Enron entities to Merrill Lynch is a fraud that allows Enron to illegally order about $ 12 million in pre-tax profits, when in fact there is no real sales and no real profit.
Four former Merrill executives and two former Enron middle-level officials face conspiracy and fraud charges. Merrill broke his own deal, dismissed the bankers and approved oversight of his structured financial transactions. It also solves the cost of civil fraud carried by the Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States, without recognizing or refuting errors.
Discrimination Fees
On June 26, 2007, the US Commission of Opportunities (EEOC) filed a lawsuit against Merrill Lynch, accusing the company of discriminating against Dr. Majid Borumand because of Iranian nationality and Islam, with "careless indifference" to his protected civil rights. The EEOC lawsuit states that violations by members of the company are intentional and committed with malicious intent. In another case related to ill-treatment of another Iranian employee by Merrill Lynch on July 20, 2007, the NASD arbitration panel ordered Merrill Lynch to pay his former Iranian employee Fariborz Zojaji for $ 1.6 million for dismissing him for Persian ethnicity. Merrill Lynch's actions encourage reactions from the Iran-American National Council, and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.
In the June 2008 issue, Diversity Inc. named Merrill Lynch one of the top 10 companies for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender employees, and the seventh best company in the US for overall diversity. In 2007, Merrill Lynch was named the second best company in the US for disabled by Diversity Magazine. On June 5, 2008, Merrill Lynch has created the West Asian, Middle Eastern and North African Professional Networks (WAMENA) to help support and provide additional resources for employees of diverse backgrounds. In May 2008, Merrill Lynch was named the No.1 US company for "Diverse College Graduates" by Diversity Edge magazine, beating Microsoft to the top spot in the rankings.
The appellate court of New Jersey on August 13, 2008 gave a ruling against Merrill Lynch in a discriminatory lawsuit filed by a gay worker.
Market timing
In 2002, Merrill Lynch awarded a civil penalty of $ 10 million as a result of inappropriate activity taking place at the company's Fort Lee New Jersey office. Three financial advisers, and the fourth involved to a lesser extent, placed 12,457 trades for Millennium Partners clients in at least 521 mutual funds and 63 mutual fund mutual funds at least 40 annuity variables. The Millennium earns more than half of the funds and sub-accounts. In the fund, where the Millennium generates profit, its profits reach about $ 60 million. Merrill Lynch failed to adequately oversee this financial adviser, whose market time draws short-term gains from mutual funds and harms long-term investors.
Payment of bonus 2008
Merrill Lynch arranged billions of bonus payments for 2008 performance in what appeared to be a "special time", despite reporting a loss of $ 27 billion. These $ 3.6 billion bonuses are a third of the money they receive from the FBI TARP bailout.
Merrill's bonus was determined by the Merrill Compensation Committee at its December 8, 2008 meeting shortly after the BOA shareholders approved the merger but before the fourth quarter's financial results were determined. This appears to be a departure from normal corporate practices, since the kind of bonus that Merrill gives is a performance bonus which, according to company policy, should reflect all four quarters of performance and be paid in January or thereafter. But in this case, the bonus was awarded in December before the fourth quarter performance was determined.
They are also relatively huge with TARP money allocated to Merrill. The Merrill bonus is equivalent to 36.2% of the TARP Treasury funds earmarked for Merrill. Merrill's employees must have a minimum salary of $ 300,000 and have attained a Vice President or higher to qualify.
Industrial awards
- Ranked # 1 in Barron's 2010 Top 1000 Advisors
- Ranked # 1 in Barron's list 2010 for most advisors ranked No. 1. 1 in their state
- Ranked # 1 in Barron's 2009 Top 1000 Advisors
- Ranked # 1 in Barron's list 2009 for most advisors ranked No. 1. 1 in their state
- Institutional Investors
- Ranked No.3 in the 2009 Survey of the All-America Fixed Income Team
- Ranked # 1 for Pan European coverage in the 2009 European Wholy Research team survey
- Ranked 3 in 2009 for emerging EMEA scopes
- Ranked 3 in the All-Latin America survey of 2009 and No. 2 in the All-Brazil survey
- Ranked 5th in the 2009 All-Asia Research team survey
- Ranked # 3 in 2009 Survey of the All-American Equity Research Team
- Alpha Magazine - Ranked 3 by hedge fund in survey for All-Asia research team
- Forbes /Zacks - Best Broker for stock taking and forecast accuracy; capturing more than twice the award of the second winner. Seven of the 12 analysts are named "Dazzling Dozen"
- Wall Street Journal "Best on the Street Stock Picking Award" - No.3 in the US ;; 17 ranking analysts
- Thomson Reuters Extel - No.1 for European Equity Sector Harvest Rsch; No.2 for Pan-European Equity & amp; Rsch Equity Associations; No.2 for Continental European Small & amp; Mid Caps Rsch
- Financial Times /StarMine
- Rank No.1 Global Broker, No.1 US Broker; No.2 European Broker and No.5 Pan-Asian Broker; received 42 individual analyst awards (May 2009)
- Ranked in the US, No. 2 in Latin America, No.2 in Asia Pacific outside Japan, No.3 in Europe Developed in 2009 for earnings forecasts; Ranked 4th in Asia Pacific ex-Japan, and No.5 in Latin America in 2009 for Stock Recommendations
- At Bankers Investment Banking Award, 2013, Bank of America Merrill Lynch won the "Most Innovative Investment Bank"
Organizational Structure
The organizational structure of Merrill Lynch comes from John Thain, former Chairman, President, and CEO of the company. Under his direct supervision there are seven important positions within the company as a whole. The President, Vice President, and Chair of various sectors in Merrill Lynch, such as investment banking, usually occupy this position. Under this upper management authority is a lower management entrepreneur, who manages the further division of a particular sector of Merrill Lynch. Lower management entrepreneurs oversee employees who specialize in the corporate sector, for example, consultants ("Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc.").
Merrill Lynch as a subsidiary
Merrill Lynch is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bank of America ("Merrill Lynch"). Prior to the merger, Merrill Lynch issued debt instruments to several companies. However, after becoming a wholly owned entity under Bank of America, Bank of America does not consider a guarantee in debt offered by Merrill Lynch & Co. (full name while independent company) ("Merrill Lynch"). Conversely, as a major subsidiary, Merrill Lynch borrows and borrows with Bank of America to provide more centralized liquidity management ("Merrill Lynch").
Merrill Edge
Source of the article : Wikipedia
0 Comments