Bank of America is swinging $25 billion of its own balance sheet into private-credit lending and has promoted two senior bankers to lead the charge, a shift that could send even more middle-market deal flow through its Charlotte capital-markets hub. The move is a big step-up in the bank’s direct-lending firepower as it squares off against nonbank private-credit managers and its Wall Street competitors. For Charlotte, it is another reminder that the city remains one of the country’s key banking nerve centers.
According to the Charlotte Business Journal, internal memos show the bank plans to originate these loans out of its capital-markets division and has named Anand Melvani head of private credit for global capital markets and Scott Wiate head of private credit structuring and underwriting. The memos state that Melvani will keep his role as head of Americas leveraged finance, while Wiate will report to Vice-Chair Bruce Thompson, the local outlet reports. Bank officials have confirmed the existence of the internal communications to reporters but have not put out a formal press release on the public wire.
How the Bank Plans to Deploy the Capital
Bloomberg reported that Bank of America intends to source private-credit deals through its capital-markets origination teams inside investment banking, using its own balance sheet instead of packaging loans into third-party funds. The new appointments are designed to tie leveraged-finance origination directly to dedicated underwriting and structuring so the bank can both originate and hold well-priced loans. Executives say the approach is meant to capture origination economics while applying tighter credit controls on positions the bank expects to hold to maturity.
Where This Fits in the Market
The $25 billion allocation follows even larger moves by peers. JPMorgan set aside roughly $50 billion for direct lending last year as big banks and asset managers rushed into the private-credit market, the Financial Times reports. That growing bank presence is arriving just as valuations and liquidity in private credit are coming under sharper scrutiny. A heavier dose of balance-sheet lending from major banks could squeeze spreads and reset the competitive landscape for buyout financing.
“This commitment further strengthens our ability to meet the evolving needs of our corporate and private equity clients,” Vice-Chair Bruce Thompson wrote in an internal memo, according to the Financial Times. The announcement also lands amid fresh sector jitters after Blue Owl curtailed redemptions in a retail-facing private-credit vehicle, a step that intensified questions about liquidity in semi-liquid products. Investors and regulators are tracking those developments closely as banks ramp up proprietary lending programs, with underwriting discipline likely to determine how sustainable this balance-sheet deployment really is.
What It Means for Charlotte
For Charlotte, the strategy sends more high-stakes lending decisions through a bank that is both the city’s largest financial employer and the home of its national headquarters. Local private-equity and middle-market bankers say Bank of America’s balance-sheet push could shorten deal timelines and ratchet up competition for covenant-light financings arranged out of Uptown deal desks. Neither city officials nor the bank have yet laid out whether the expansion will involve additional local hiring or any reorganization of office space…