BankAmerica Names Exec to Head Global Retail Bank

BankAmerica Corp. said Wednesday that it has appointed H. Eugene Lockhart, chief executive of MasterCard International for the last three years, as president of BankAmerica’s global retail bank.

In the newly created position, Lockhart will report to David Coulter, BankAmerica’s chairman and chief executive, and oversee the huge consumer and small business banking operations. Lockhart will take over that responsibility from Vice Chairman Tom Peterson, who previously said he intended to retire from the San Francisco-based banking company this year.

BankAmerica, operator of the nation’s third-largest bank, has retail bank assets of about $91 billion and more than 2,000 branches in 11 Western states.

About 70% of BankAmerica’s 80,000 employees work in retail banking, which has felt the brunt of the rapid changes roiling the banking industry. At BofA, 70% of consumer banking transactions are now conducted outside of the traditional branches.

Lockhart is “especially adept at guiding financial services businesses through technological change,” Coulter said.

Lockhart will also take responsibility for other areas of bank operations as the company consolidates its commercial operations into its retail and wholesale (or large corporate accounts) divisions, the company said.

Lockhart was previously chief executive for Midland Bank’s British banking and group operations, responsible for retail and corporate banking.

He will join BankAmerica in May.

For MasterCard, Lockhart’s resignation was a surprise. And for the first time, MasterCard elevated an insider, Robert Selander, to head the company. Selander, 46, had been president of MasterCard’s operations in Canada, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Lockhart said it was a difficult decision to leave MasterCard but he was excited about returning to the banking world.