Recent hiring decisions by Bank of America and Sovereign Bank suggest a power shift to the Bay State.
Analysts say the moves could have been predicted, since both Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America and Philadelphia-based Sovereign already have a high concentration of leaders in and around Boston, which is known for its wealth management talent.
“There is a huge but very quiet infrastructure of talent and expertise” in Boston wealth management, said David Floreen, the Massachusetts Bankers Association’s senior vice president for government affairs.
“It doesn’t surprise me that Bank of America would want to play on that strength,” he added.
Bank of America lured Boston-based Putnam Funds Fixed Income Team Chief Operating Officer Paul Quistberg to the cash investments unit of Columbia Management, the bank’s investment management arm, late last month.
Columbia Management has been based in Boston since 1994, when Bank of America bought Fleet Bank, but the cash investments unit – about 35 employees, mostly researchers and traders – is still in Charlotte.
Whether those employees will move to Boston hasn’t been decided yet, a bank spokesman said.
Banking analyst Jim Jones, whose company, First Wellesley Consulting of Wellesley, works with Bank of America, said it probably will want to locate the team in Boston, where it has the best chance of replacing staff that leave.
“They want a high-performing unit that is able to really limit the risk of underperformance, which is what happened last year,” he said, due to after-effects of the subprime lending crisis.
Quistberg, who was with Putnam for 12 years, probably knows a strong pool of talent in the Boston area, he added.
Meanwhile, Joseph Campanelli, who is based in Boston and has been Sovereign Bank’s chief executive officer since 2007, has hired three executives with New England ties since the early 2008.
American Banker, which reported last week on the Feb. 21 hiring of Kirk Walters, formerly of Burlington, Vt.-based Chittenden Corp., as Sovereign’s chief financial officer, noted that he replaces Mark R. McCollum, who had been based in Pennsylvania.
“All of Sovereign’s business-line heads are now based in Boston, reporting to Mr. Campanelli,” the New York daily reported.
First Wellesley Consulting’s Jones said that’s not surprising, given Campanelli’s ties.
“Especially in the banking industry, you cannot overstate the value of relationships and how people go about building their teams,” he said.
Through a spokeswoman, Sovereign called the suggestion that its leadership is consolidating in Boston “speculation.”
But the two other recent hires with New England ties point to something different: Roy Lever, formerly of Bank of America and Fleet Bank, is now managing director of retail banking; and former Sovereign New England North Chief Executive Officer Patrick Sullivan was promoted to managing director of commercial banking.
Jones noted that Campanelli also once was employed by Fleet. He was first hired in 1997, when Sovereign acquired that bank’s indirect auto lending business, which Campanelli headed, Jones said.
“I think he has undertaken a practice which is quite common in the banking industry,” he said. “As you build your team around you, you have to have a level of trust and comfort Â… that most often comes with observing an individual over a period of time.”
