Chicago's Dean, Samstein Among Those Cut By Bank of America Merrill Lynch

CHICAGO — Two Bank of America Merrill Lynch bankers based in Chicago, Dan Dean and Ivan Samstein, were among seven public finance banking professionals cut by the firm last month, sources said.

Samstein, a former Moody’s Investor Service municipal analyst, was a director. He made the leap to banking in 2004 when he joined the municipal team at the former ABN AMRO Financial Services Inc.

That firm, including its commercial banking group known as LaSalle Bank Corp., was acquired by Bank of America in 2007.

The firm shut down LaSalle’s municipal banking operation but Samstein, who covered the middle markets, was one of a few professionals who were retained.

Samstein also serves as a captain and battalion intelligence office in the Army National Guard.

He was as an intelligence officer in eastern Afghanistan from March 2008 to August 2009 while on military leave from the bank.

Dean was a vice president in the firm’s public infrastructure group specializing in the transportation sector.

He joined Merrill Lynch in 2006 from George K. Baum & Co. Bank of America acquired Merrill Lynch in an announcement on the same day, Sept. 15, 2008, on  which Lehman Brothers Holdings filed bankruptcy. Dean also previously worked in the public finance group at Piper Jaffray & Co.

As volume dropped this year and Bank of America stock floundered, market participants said the company was ripe for public finance layoffs, given the size of its merged teams.

Bank of America said last month it planned to slash 3,500 positions during that quarter and said that about 4% to 5% of the layoffs would come from its investment bank and trading operations.

The bank previously announced a broader move to eliminate 30,000 jobs in consumer-related businesses.

The public finance cuts were not part of that broader plan and were made as part of a review of the company’s business needs, sources said. The bank declined to comment.

The broker-dealer ranks third so far this year among senior managers nationally with 12.3% of market share, compared to its first-place finish last year with 13.9% of market share and second place finish in 2009 with 13.7% of market share, according to Thomson Reuters.

The firm ranks fourth so far this year among senior managers in the Midwest with 7.5% of the market share.

It finished last year in second place with 11% of market share, and first in 2009 with 13.9% of market share, according to Thomson Reuters.

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