BofA Looks to Link Up Bond Issuers With Minority-Run Banks
- Lender is giving up some of its fees so diverse firms get more
- Bank held event to encourage issuers to hire minority dealers
A pedestrian walks past a Bank of America bank branch in San Francisco, California.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Bank of America Corp. held a conference last week to connect minority-run banks with companies that borrow in bond markets in an effort to increase diversity in debt underwriting.
The Charlotte, North Carolina-based lender -- consistently one of the largest underwriters of U.S. investment-grade corporate bond sales over the last two decades -- is also looking to increase the proportion of fees that companies direct to minority-owned dealers that join its syndicates for bond sales, said Andrew Karp, the bank’s head of investment-grade capital markets. He declined to provide specific figures.