Pressure is growing on Bank of America to strip its chief executive Brian Moynihan of his title as chairman.
The advisory group Institutional Shareholder Services has told its clients in a strongly worded letter: “The board’s unilateral nullification of an independent chairman requirement ... suggests that stronger independent board leadership is necessary.”
Mr Moynihan, 55, has held the dual roles since October 2014, when Charles Holliday stood down as chairman. At that point the second-biggest lender in the US had argued that the separation of the roles, which took place in 2009, was no longer needed because it had overcome the problems created by its takeovers of Countrywide and Merrill Lynch at the height of the financial crisis.
Investors will, for the first time, be allowed to vote on the issue on 22 September.
