Wiant, who was most recently Bank of America’s head of banks and specialty finance, will help Truist build out an advisory franchise catering to financial firms, said the people, who asked to not be identified because the matter isn’t public.
Representatives for Truist and Bank of America declined to comment.
Truist, a big regional bank formed in 2019 through the merger of BB&T and SunTrust, has been hiring aggressively in the past year to build a Wall Street advisory business under Royal Bank of Canada alum Michael Carter. Last year, it hired some telecom investment bankers from Wells Fargo and a private-equity banker from Credit Suisse Group.
Wiant joined Bank of America about two years ago from Credit Suisse. He also previously worked at Lazard and Royal Bank of Canada, where he built up and co-headed the U.S. financial institutions group.
A bank mergers-and-acquisitions specialist, he has worked on deals including PNC Financial Services Group’s $11.5 billion purchase of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria’s U.S. business in 2021 and RBC’s $5.4 billion deal in 2015 for City National. — Katherine Doherty, Amanda Gordon and Max Reyes, Bloomberg News
