Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Bank of America Corp. hired Arif Imam, a former managing director at Morgan Stanley, and three other directors from rivals including Credit Suisse Group AG to boost its Japan equity sales business.

Imam, 45, joined last month as a New York-based managing director for Japan equity sales, according to an internal company memo dated today.

Tsukasa Noda, a Tokyo-based spokesman at Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch Japan Securities Co. unit, confirmed the contents of the memo, which was sent to staff by Patrick Hogan, the head of global Japan institutional sales.

The bank, the largest U.S. lender by deposits, also hired Atsuko Ikeda this month from Credit Suisse as a director in New York, according to the memo. Joe Altwasser and Rob Purcell from KBC Securities joined as Tokyo-based directors, it said.

In addition, the bank transferred Oliver Tetlow to Tokyo from London, according to the memo.

Merrill is shifting to commission-based business from proprietary trading to reduce investment risk and secure stable sources of income. The change, backed by Bank of America’s global markets head, Thomas Montag, comes as banks including HSBC Holdings Plc reduce equity-related operations in Japan.

The latest Japan equity sales hires follow Merrill Lynch’s recruitment of Douglas Butcher from Morgan Stanley as a managing director in May and Hiroyuki Kurosu from UBS AG who joined in March as a director. Chiho Adachi joined Merrill Lynch in Tokyo as vice president from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in April.

To contact the reporters on this story: Takahiko Hyuga in Tokyo at thyuga@bloomberg.net; Eijiro Ueno in Tokyo at e.ueno@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 10, 2009 02:46 EST