B of A Appoints Miscoll to Key Position in L.A.

Bank of America on Tuesday promoted one of its top executives to a newly created management post in Southern California in order to beef up the San Francisco-based bank’s presence in the growing financial-services market here.

James P. Miscoll, 50, who currently heads the bank’s retail financial-service division, will become executive officer of Southern California on Friday. He will transfer from San Francisco to Bank of America’s Southern California headquarters in Los Angeles and will report directly to Samuel H. Armacost, president and chief executive of Bank of America.

In his new job, Miscoll, whose replacement in San Francisco has not been announced, will be responsible for directing the development and delivery of bank products and services in Southern California.

The division that Miscoll headed during the last two years is the largest in the bank’s retail banking division and was the strongest single contributor to Bank of America’s profits in 1983 and 1984, according to company spokesman Jack Houseman. It was through the retail division that the bank carried out massive cost-cutting measures last year, including the consolidation of 132 of its branches and reducing its retail work force by about 3,700.