BofA Hires Goldman Investment Banker

Bank of America(BAC) continues hiring in and lending aggressively out of its investment banking unit, taking advantage of cautiousness on the part of its competitors to gain market share and snap up some talented executives.

Sources say BofA's latest hire is Chris Hogg, a longtime Goldman Sachs(GS) executive who was in charge of the Wall Street firm's unit that helps its financial institutions clients raise money.

Though BofA CEO Ken Lewis said last year that he had "had all the fun [he could] stand in investment banking," he has lately been making more positive statements about that business, which accounted for $9.1 billion, or 24%, of the bank's $37.3 billion in second quarter revenues.

Recent hiring activity and the results reported Monday continue to show that the Charlotte-based institution is a long way from ceding its share of the fees U.S. companies pay to Wall Street.

Sources say Hogg will be a BofA managing director and join Ken McPhail in co-heading Depository Institutions and Government Agencies. He will report to Phil Barnett, head of Financial Institutions.

A Goldman spokesman confirmed Hogg left the firm, but declined further comment. Hogg is not yet listed in BofA's switchboard directory and did not return calls to his home. A BofA spokeswoman had no immediate comment on whether Hogg would be joining the bank.

In a 1997 profile, Bloomberg credited Hogg with developing monthly income preferred securities (MIPS). Though the preferred equity hybrid securities were extremely popular at the time as a way for companies to raise equity while avoiding taxes, their adherents included the now-notorious Enron, and a 2003 Business Week article cites unnamed accounting experts who say that MIPS "contributed in part to the distorted earnings mess of the late 1990's."