John Hallacy, a 35-year industry veteran, is retiring as head of municipals research at Bank of America Merrill Lynch effective the end of July, he confirmed late Monday.
Hallacy, 57, spent 23 years with the firm. He spent more than fourteen years managing Merrill Lynch’s overall municipal bond credit research effort and was a tax-backed and general municipals research analyst. Hallacy assumed his existing title on Jan. 6, 2010.
The bank is expected to make further announcements about its muni research unit in the near future.
Hallacy said he will assist his wife, medical doctor Mary Ann LoFrumento, with the Hands Up for Haiti relief effort founded after an earthquake devastated that Central American country in 2010. Hallacy and LoFrumento helped fund the renovation of a clinic as the country began to rebuild.
“She’s done upwards of a dozen missions down there,” Hallacy said in an interview.
Hallacy said he has also been asked to serve on the boards of drama companies.
Previously, Hallacy had been a managing director in a municipal markets public finance division within global markets and investment banking at BofA Merrill for about five years. In that position he advised issuers on ratings, insurance and investor relations.
Hallacy also spent one year at MBIA as a managing director in global public finance. A graduate of Columbia University, he began his career with Standard & Poor’s.
He is a past chairman of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association municipal credit research committee, and of the Municipal Analysts Group of New York. He has also served on the National Federation of Municipal Analysts board and received an excellence award from that organization in 2001.
