Bank of America's EMEA changes are the end of an era for its senior women

First Sanaz Zaimi left Bank of America in 2021. Now Snigda Singh is becoming a chief operating officer. The senior women in front office roles in BofA's European fixed income currencies and commodities business appear to be dwindling.

Before she left, Zaimi was BofA's head of Fixed Income, Currencies and Commodities (FICC) Sales and the CEO of BofA Securities Europe SA (BofASE). Then, from the point when Zaimi left three years ago until today, Singh was BofA's co-head of European FICC along with Jan Smorczewski. 

As of today, though, things have been shaken up. In a memo seen by eFinancialCareers, BofA said Singh is now the EMEA Global Markets COO, managing "governance and initiatives" instead. This is a non-trading role and Singh is now reporting to Denis Manelski, BofA's New York-based COO of global markets and its head of FICC sales. 

Smorczewski, however, is staying on in a trading function. In the new world, he'll be leading Global G10 Trading and EMEA FX and LCT Trading, reporting to Carlos Fernandez-Aller, the global head of FX and EM macro. 

For Singh, who was previously head of EMEA rates trading and who's worked in trading roles at the bank for over a decade, it seems something of a demotion. It's not clear whether she wanted the shift into a less markets-facing role, or whether she was forcibly cajoled into it. Sources suggest that BofA's EMEA macro business has struggled this year, although when it announced its third quarter results, the bank credit strength in "currencies and interest rate products" globally with its 9% increase in fixed income revenues in the third quarter. As with Zaimi, there are also unconfirmed intimations that Singh is a "political animal." But this applies to most people at that level.

The rearrangement of BofA's EMEA FICC team comes with the promotion of Brian Weinstein to a newly created role as head of EMEA Global Markets. Weinstein, who's a BofA veteran, is a credit guy and was latterly the co-head of global credit with Brian Carosielli in New York. He's now focusing entirely on EMEA instead. In his new role, he'll cover EMEA fixed-income, currencies and commodities trading as well as credit. Carosielli will be the sole credit head globally. 

With Weinstein therefore now managing everything except macro and Smorczewski (an FX trader) taking over rates from Singh, it looks a bit like the reorg has edged her out. 

BofA declined to comment. The bank does still have senior women in its EMEA trading business - just not in fixed income. Martina Slowey is the head of EMEA equities. 

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