Bank of America expands venture group with Goldman hire -memo

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has hired former Goldman Sachs banking veteran Frank L. Walters to head up its venture coverage group, according to a memo obtained by Reuters.

Walters, who is known as "Buz," will also become vice chairman of global investment banking when he joins Bank of America later this year, the memo said. He will be based in Palo Alto, California and report to Chet Bozdog, global head of technology investment banking.

A spokeswoman for Bank of America confirmed the contents of the memo.

Prior to his eight-year tenure at Goldman Sachs where Walters also led the bank's venture coverage group, he headed up the same group at Deutsche Bank Alex Brown.

An expert in venture capital, Walters has a long track-record working on mergers and acquisitions and initial public offerings in the venture community, including transactions with Accel Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Benchmark Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners among other names.

In this new role for Bank of America, Walters will enhance the focus on venture capital firms.

(Reporting by Nadia Damouni; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)