Chris Johnson, chairman of global leveraged finance at Merrill Lynch, has taken the voluntary package being offered by the firm to employees worldwide designed to trim costs in the bear market. Jessica Oppenheimer, a spokeswoman for Merrill, confirmed he is no longer with the firm, but declined comment on any other departures. Johnson was unavailable for comment.
Johnson focused on loan originations. Jack Yang the head of leveraged finance products for Merrill is still in charge of this product area stated the spokeswoman, adding it has not been decided how Johnson's responsibilities will be divided. Other members of the Merrill loan team also took the package, said a banker, but no names or numbers were divulged. "The bank is cutting on costs, and some people chose to take the package," he said. Merrill is planning to cut 10,000 jobs worldwide or 15% of its global work force.