BofA's Mystery CEO Candidate

Despite his importance, Curl has managed to keep an extremely low profile. In fact, just over a year ago, a Google search for "Greg Curl" turned up a different banker with the same name as the top result--the CEO of tiny Crossroads Bank in Effingham, Ill. The Illinois-based banker told me last year he had heard of his namesake, but that they'd never met.

Curl has many high-profile admirers in the banking industry, including McColl, private equity investor J. Christopher Flowers and Ed Herlihy, partner at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and one of the top bank M&A lawyers in the country.

Bank of America: A History

While at Institutional Investor Magazine last year, I worked on a profile of Curl which was never published. A portrait of a man, who, while bright, seems far more introverted than one would expect of a CEO, emerged from that research. None of the people I spoke to at that time ever imagined Curl would one day be getting consideration to become BofA's CEO, nor did they think he aspired to hold that position.

Curl is known for his stealth, a trait that's useful for a bank merger specialist. One executive who follows BofA closely says Curl was one important reason that BofA's deals have never leaked ahead of a public announcement.

Curl's deal acumen has come into question, however, with the fallout from BofA's purchase of Merrill Lynch last year. The deal has been a political disaster for BofA, spurring numerous investigations and Congressional hearings that have ultimately led to Lewis's resignation. After Curl was mentioned along with Brian Moynihan, the head of BofA's consumer and small-business banking business, as a frontrunner for the CEO job in a Wall Street Journal article on Wednesday, BofA investor Finger Interests filed a notice with the Securities and Exchange Commission urging shareholders to reject internal executives as leaders of the bank, questioning their credibility. Finger Interests also faults Curl for his role in the acquisition of Countrywide Financial, which the investor argues exposed BofA unnecessarily to liability related to allegedly deceptive sales practices.