Bank of America Merrill Lynch's head in Canada, Lynn Patterson, is retiring after a dozen years with Merrill and two decades in the industry.
Jonathan Moulds, Merrill's president, Europe and Canada, made the announcement in an internal notice Thursday. No successor has yet been named.
Ms. Patterson stepped into a leadership role at Merrill in Canada in 2008, and played a crucial role in keeping Merrill together when the firm hit a rough patch and then was sold not long after to Bank of America.
For a while after the transaction, it wasn't clear if there was a big future in Canada for Merrill and employees were very nervous, but fears that the firm would scale back eased immensely when Ms. Patterson was named to the integration team for the purchase. That seemed to cement Merrill's future in Canada, and solidified the franchise.
"Lynn has been a tremendous asset to Bank of America Merrill Lynch," said Mr. Moulds in his announcement.
"We thank her for the major role she played in integrating the Bank of America and Merrill Lynch global markets platforms and her dedicated leadership in developing the integrated Canadian GBAM platform. Lynn leaves our Canadian business in excellent shape for the next stage of development in this important market."
The new leadership at Merrill will take on a firm that still retains serious clout as a merger advisory shop, and is the leading non-Canadian firm operating in Canadian debt underwriting. It also has the advantage of Bank of America's balance sheet, and is focused on cranking up corporate lending in Canada, which should lead to more deals in other areas.
However, on the equity underwriting side, the firm has struggled to make an impression of late, dropping off the league tables.