Merrill Lynch has promoted Chris Burns and Jerry Labowitz to co-heads of equity research for the Americas region to replace Candace Browning, who was appointed head of global securities research and economics after Robert McCann resigned from the bank earlier this month.

Burns was previously head of US equity research in New York, while Labowitz was a senior analyst on the US technology research team, according to a memo sent to staff by Browning. Labowitz remains a manager of technology research.