Bank of America to keep Merrill Lynch name -- and bull

The Merrill Lynch name -- and the brokerage’s famous bull logo -- will survive under new owner Bank of America Corp.

From Bloomberg News:

Bank of America Corp. will call its securities brokerage business Merrill Lynch Wealth Management and continue use of the bull logo, the bank said in a memo to employees today.

The company's corporate and investment bank will be called "Bank of America Merrill Lynch," the bank said in the memo.

The dustbin of Wall Street history now holds so many once-revered names that were merged out of existence in the last few decades as the brokerage industry has consolidated: E.F. Hutton, Kidder Peabody and Paine Webber, among them.

In the last year, of course, the credit crisis killed off two more giants -- Bear Stearns and Lehman Bros.

Merrill Lynch, too, might have become a victim of the credit debacle, if the company hadn’t rushed into the arms of Bank of America in September. The merger became official on Jan. 1.

As for keeping the Merrill name and the bull (the latter was introduced in 1974) for the retail brokerage business, Bank of America spokesman Joe Goode told Bloomberg that the bank used research involving customers and potential customers in at least 13 countries before making the decision to retain the brands.

"Merrill Lynch's bull tested extremely well among the mass affluent segment," Goode told Bloomberg.

Bank of America's U.S. Trust money management unit and Columbia Management mutual fund unit will keep their own names, the bank said.

-- Tom Petruno

Photo: The Merrill Lynch bull