Bank of America to beef up staff

BOSTON (Reuters) - Bank of America (BAC.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) plans to hire roughly 1,000 bankers, brokers and client managers by the end of 2008 in an aggressive push to attract more affluent clients, a top executive said on Tuesday.

"We will hire people from competitors and we will hire from other parts of the company, we do it every day and we know how to get it done," Brian Moynihan, president of Bank of America's Global Wealth and Investment Management unit, said at the Reuters Wealth Management Summit in Boston.

Moynihan said the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank plans to hire 1,000 associates in its Premier Banking and Investments Division, which serves clients with between $100,000 and $3 million in investible assets.

These employees will work as client managers, financial advisers and in other client facing capacities and will be based throughout the United States, Moynihan said. Currently the division, which oversees $195.8 billion in total client assets, employs 2,500 client managers and 2,000 financial advisers.

Competition is heating up in the wealth management industry as more Americans earn fortunes or inherit them.

The bank is also beefing up staff at its U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management unit which caters to people with more than $3 million to invest. That unit oversees $350.9 billion in client assets.

Bank of America acquired U.S. Trust from discount brokerage Charles Schwab Corp (SCHW.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) in July.

Since the start of the year, Bank of America has hired more than 200 new associates to work with wealthy clients, boosting the overall number to 4,600 associates. (For other news from the Reuters Wealth Management Summit, click here)