The resignation of John Thain, former chairman and chief executive of Merrill Lynch, leaves Bank of America with just one of four Merrill executives it named to senior posts in the merged company. That is Tom Montag, head of global markets, who is due to receive a $39.4m (€31m) bonus this month.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Bank of America chief executive Ken Lewis had lost faith in Thain, after learning of mounting fourth-quarter losses at Merrill from the transition team handling the Bank of America-Merrill merger rather than from Thain himself.