2 Top Officers Resign From Posts at B of A

As part of an accelerating turnover at the top of Bank of America, two senior officers this week announced that they were leaving the nation’s biggest bank.

F. R. (Pete) Talbott, 43, said Thursday that he is resigning from his post as executive vice president overseeing Bank of America’s huge California branch network and a variety of other consumer services nationwide. Talbott, who has been with B of A for less than two years, is moving East to become chief administrative officer at the investment house First Boston Corp.

“I feel very badly about leaving in the middle of a job not completed. And, at Bank of America, we’re clearly not done,” Talbott said. “But my primary motive for leaving is a very strong family preference for living on the East Coast. Beyond this, the opportunity at First Boston is a very good one.”

Talbott will be replaced by Donald A. Mullane, who moves up from his post as executive vice president in charge of the California bank and FinanceAmerica, B of A’s consumer finance arm. Mullane, 46, has been with the bank for 27 years.

Also on Thursday, the bank confirmed that Robert A. Belanger will take early retirement and leave the bank at the end of the month. Belanger, 57, is senior vice president in charge of lending in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Scandinavia and Africa. Belanger, a 23-year B of A veteran, has held that post since 1983, when he was transferred from New York, where he was senior corporate officer.

Belanger and Talbott said their resignations were voluntary. But the moves are in the context of a massive restructuring of the troubled bank, which suffered second-quarter losses of $338 million and is beset by continuing loan-loss problems. Additional high-level departures are expected, bank officials said.