By Rick Rothacker | From Charlotte.com

Bank of America Corp. said Thursday it’s combining two major divisions to streamline the way it serves business clients.

In the reorganization, veteran Bank of America executive Gene Taylor will run a new unit called Global Corporate & Investment Banking and add the title of vice chairman, reporting to Chairman Ken Lewis.

In the new post, Taylor will continue to oversee commercial banking operations that serve mid-sized companies, while adding the capital markets and investment banking unit that offers Wall Street-style services such as stock and bond offerings.

Al de Molina, who runs capital markets and investment banking, will now report to Taylor, instead of Lewis. He will hold the title of chief executive of Banc of America Securities.

Unlike a restructuring last fall that cut 4,500 jobs, the initiative is not about shaving costs or reducing positions, spokesman Bob Stickler said. "This is simply a reorganization to try to better serve the customer," he said.

The move comes as the Charlotte company is slowing a planned $675 million investment in its capital markets and investment banking unit. Last week, Chief Financial Officer Marc Oken said the company had spent about $500 million so far, but was "holding the line" because of difficult financial markets.

Thursday’s announcement wasn’t a sign of an investment banking pullback, Stickler said. "We are still very intent on growing the investment bank," he said.

Under the new structure, the nation’s No. 2 bank by assets said it could do a better job of providing capital markets and investment banking services to business clients. For example, a client manager who works with a mid-sized business will now be in the same unit that helps companies raise money through stock and bond offerings and provides merger advice.

The combined unit would have accounted for about 40 percent of the company’s $4.3 billion in profits in the second quarter.

Sandler O’Neill & Partners analyst Jeffery Harte said the move makes sense as the company follows a "universal bank" model of offering a full array of services. He said it was too early to cast judgment on the company’s investment bank expansion.

"It takes a lot of time to expand an investment bank," said Harte, who doesn’t own any of the bank’s shares but whose firm has received investment banking compensation from the company.

De Molina, 48, has led the capital markets and investment banking unit since the spring of 2004. The bank said he brought the idea of combining units to Lewis and will be a "key partner" with Taylor, 57. De Molina remains on the risk and capital committee, the group of top executives that guides company strategy.

The bank also announced Thursday that Carter McClelland, 59, who runs the investment banking unit under de Molina, will retire at the end of the year.

Restructurings are nothing new for Bank of America. Last fall, the company combined its consumer and small business units and created a new technology and service position. As part of last year’s FleetBoston Financial Corp. acquisition, Taylor gave up control of the consumer business, while keeping commercial banking.