Moynihan’s chairman role is on the line

The Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank is holding a special shareholder meeting Tuesday morning on bylaw changes it made previous year to allow CEO Moynihan to take on the additional role of chairman, sparking protests from other public pension funds who say the roles should remain separated to provide more oversight. “Since [Moynihan’s] appointment it has severely underperformed all its major competitors”.

Union-affiliated pension fund CtW, which represents about 0.2 per cent of the votes in BoA, urged shareholders to reject the bylaw changes and restore an independent chairman.

It’s been a bumpy ride, but Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan gets to keep the chairman’s title.

Christina Rexrode and Joann S. Lublin at The Wall Street Journal have previously reported that Trillium Asset Management has voted against the proposal, and that Korea Investment Corp., South Korea’s sovereign-wealth fund, also plans to vote against it.

Moynihan succeeded Lewis as CEO in 2010.

The Oracle of Omaha, according to a representative for Berkshire, is “100% in support of Mr. Moynihan and believes he is doing an outstanding job for Bank of America shareholders”. On Tuesday, shareholders will decide if they will strip him of his chairman of the board role.

He said: “There is no evidence supporting it …”

Mark Rumsey interviews banking analyst Nancy Bush about Bank of America CEO/Chairman debate. Moynihan has been credited with stabilizing BofA after the financial crisis.

In March, the Federal Reserve said the bank didn’t do enough to prove it was resilient enough in its “stress tests” and gave the lender a tentative pass. The bank has since satisfied the central bank that it could withstand another shock to the financial system.

The board “should retain the flexibility to determine the Board leadership structure best-suited to the company’s and Board’s then-existing circumstances and personnel”, BofA said. “We respectfully recognize that stockholders have varying views, which is why the board committed to holding the vote”.