Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Bank of America Corp.'s said Michael J. Meyer, head of investment-grade bond trading, and Christopher Pesce, head of prime brokerage, are leaving, continuing a spate of executive changes after the company's corporate and investment bank reported a 93 percent decline in third-quarter profit.

Masaya Okoshi replaced Meyer, who joined Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America in 2002 as managing director and head of U.S. high-grade corporate bond trading from UBS Securities. Jeff Cohen succeeded Pesce, who worked at Goldman Sachs & Co. before joining the bank in 2002. Spokeswomen Louise Hennessy and Melissa Kitlowski confirmed the changes.

Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Lewis pledged on Oct. 19 to scale back and analyze investment banking after the company reported a 32 percent decline in third-quarter profit. The bank is cutting 3,000 jobs companywide including 500 from global markets and global investment banking, Hennessy said. The bank also closed its European credit strategy team, spokesman Brandon Ashcraft said today.

``A lot of firms right now are trying to show that they are making change, because what they are doing isn't OK,'' said Jeanne Branthover, head of financial services practice at Boyden Global Executive Search Ltd. in New York. ``And the firms are only going with internal candidates because they don't want to have shakeups from the outside.''

Several Changes

Lewis replaced Eugene Taylor, head of the corporate and investment bank, with Brian Moynihan, who has led its wealth management business. Peter Forlenza, co-head of global equities, resigned on Oct. 25, while Christopher Hentemann, head of structured products, left on Oct. 19. The bank also said this week it will curb base-metals trading, less than two years after hiring a six-member team from HSBC Plc to run the business.

Lewis invested $675 million in corporate and investment banking since 2004 to compete with companies including New York- based Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. for leveraged buyouts, merger advice and trading. Third-quarter profit at the division plummeted to $100 million from $1.43 billion a year earlier.

Bank of America ranks fifth this year in U.S. bond underwriting with a 7.5 percent market share, according to Bloomberg data. In 2006 the company was third behind Citigroup and JPMorgan with an 8.7 percent market share.

The credit strategy team comprised Raja Visweswaran, who was head of international credit strategy, Miqdad Asaria, Da Liu and Rishma Shah. None of the four team members answered calls to their work phones today. Visweswaran, reached on his mobile phone, declined to comment as did Paula Dominick, head of global debt and equity research in New York.

Bank of America said on Oct. 25 it will stop making home loans through independent mortgage brokers, cutting 700 jobs.

The bank rose 29 cents to $48.28 at 4:16 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

To contact the reporter on this story: David Mildenberg in Charlotte, North Carolina, at dmildenberg@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 31, 2007 17:38 EDT