The loan syndication and trading teams of FleetBoston Financial Corp.'s Fleet Securities will be eliminated in conjunction with the firm's merger with Bank of America, according to market sources. It was unclear how many people would be affected by this decision. One buysider familiar with the situation said, there was one question posed to the Fleet team: "Would you be willing to relocate ?" A "no" answer means a layoff.
The asset-based lending arm as well as the firm's middle market lending group will not be affected by this decision, since Fleet's capacities in these areas are stronger than B of A's, the buysider added. The merger is set to close in the beginning of April. Officials on the loan desk referred calls seeking comment to Christopher Carmosino, a managing director in Fleet's loan syndication department, who could not be reached. Peter Mitchell, a managing director in the firm's capital markets group, and spokespeople at Fleet did not return calls.