BofA Hires Goldman Investment Banker

In addition to the hiring, BofA is being unusually aggressive, compared to its rivals, in lending to highly leveraged companies and in underwriting mortgage securities. The bank has more than doubled its market share in underwriting junk bonds, convertible debt, asset-backed securities and mortgage-backed securities compared to where it was in the previous two years, according to data from Thomson Reuters. It has also grabbed 21.5% of the leveraged loan underwriting business in the first half of the year, compared to a 14.2% market share in 2007.

A BofA spokeswoman declined to make anyone available to discuss the bank's lending and underwriting strategy. But Lewis, on the second-quarter conference call, noted that BofA's investment bank was "very active in the quarter." It produced fees of $765 million, which Lewis said reflected "increased market share and good results in debt underwriting."

Lewis also noted that "debt issuance had record market volumes in April and May led by high yield which was almost 13 times the volume in the first quarter."

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