BofA's plan to lure ultra-rich hits snag

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Bank of America's multibillion-dollar push to attract more ultra-wealthy clients has hit a bump with a report that the CEO of a private banking unit it is buying will leave the company this summer.

A Bank of America spokesman confirmed Wednesday that Peter Scaturro will leave U.S. Trust due to disputes with the private bank's new owners.

"We thank Peter for his efforts in the early phases of our transition process," said bank spokesman John Yiannacopoulos. "We wish him all the best in the future. We're committed to providing our private banking clients with the highest level of personalized service, products and performance."

The Wall Street Journal first reported the departure Wednesday, saying that disputes reportedly range from which computer system to use to whether Bank of America (Charts) should begin charging some of U.S. Trust's ultra-rich clients to use automated teller machines. Yiannacopoulos would not comment on the reasons behing Scaturro's departure plans.

Bank of America announced in November it would pay $3.3 billion to buy U.S. Trust from brokerage firm Charles Schwab (Charts). The deal is set to close in the third quarter, Yiannacopoulos said.

At the time of the announcement, Bank of America said that Scaturro would be assuming leadership of the combined private banking operations of Bank of America.

The pending deal gives Bank of America a top brand name in wealth management and a management team with a record of attracting and serving wealthy clients, while giving U.S. Trust access to services available under the new parent's balance sheet and geographic reach while they retain their personalized service.

U.S. Trust, which was founded in 1853, targets high net worth households and ultra-high net worth households with more than $2 million in investable assets. It has about 13,600 individuals and families and clients and is considered the leading manager of wealth for U.S. households with more than $50 million in investable assets, according to Bank of America.

Charles Schwab, a brokerage firm that generally generally targets the mass-market middle-class individual investor, bought U.S. Trust for $2.7 billion in 2000.

The private banking business is a lucrative niche in the market. U.S. Trust had about $94 billion of assets under management at the time the deal was announced in November. The Journal reports that Bank of America's private bank has about $171.8 billion under management.

Scaturro joined U.S. Trust in 2005, previously serving as the CEO of the private banking operations of Citigroup (Charts). He had previously run the private banking operations at Bankers Trust before and after it was acquired by Deutsche Bank (Charts) in the United States, as well as Chase Manhattan before that bank's merger with JP Morgan to form JP Morgan Chase (Charts).

A source familar with the situation said Bank of America will now likely turn to Frances Aldrich Sevilla-Sacasa, now the president of U.S. Trust, to be head of its combined private banking operation. She followed Scaturro to U.S. Trust from the private banking operations at Citibank in 2005.

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