(Bloomberg) — Bank of America Corp. has integrated its fintech investment banking team into its technology practice, reflecting the financial services industry’s shift toward software.
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The lender will integrate about 50 bankers into its technology group of about 200 people, according to Kevin Brunner, the bank’s president of global mergers and acquisitions and global head of technology, media and telecommunications investment banking.
Fintech is a catch-all term for more than a dozen types of financial-oriented technology companies, including payments providers, exchanges, online brokers, data sellers, portfolio management software companies and digital lending platforms. Although how banks cover these activities varies from company to company, they generally fall under the financial services umbrella, given the close ties between banking and traditional fintech verticals such as payments .
That’s changing as financial technology begins to resemble traditional technology, particularly software, Brunner said in an interview last week at Bank of America’s Tech Innovation Summit in San Francisco.
“Payments and Fintech software are bound to intersect,” he said. Fintech companies also have a similar financial profile to software companies, so it makes sense to cover them by the same group.
This organizational change comes alongside Brunner’s appointment this summer as head of technology, media and telecom banking, having previously been co-head of global mergers and acquisitions.
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