A Bank of America executive with a reputation for driving junior bankers hard has been reassigned to a new role at the company following the death of a junior employee who had been working 100-hour weeks.
Gary Howe was the head of Bank of America’s Financial Institutions Group (FIG), and had been known to not strictly enforce the 80-hour working week maximum rule for his junior bankers.
Working under Howe had been Leo Lukenas III, a former Green Beret, who died suddenly in May at the age of 35. He had been working around the clock to close a major merger before his death.
In the weeks prior, Lukenas complained about the amount of time he had been working and had considered asking for a 10 percent pay cut in return for fewer hours and more sleep.
Now Howe, a senior executive at the bank, has had his oversight of the division stripped with some suggesting it may only be a matter of time before he leaves the company entirely.
Howe’s boss, the bank’s CEO and Chair Brian Moynihan, has a reputation of not firing workers and prefers to send a signal by demoting them instead.
Howe, 54, was stripped of his responsibility over the FinTech investment banking team in August – a significant reduction in his authority.
Bank of America is known for handling internal issues quietly, often through pay reductions and title changes rather than outright dismissals, making it difficult for executives to stay long term in such circumstances.
No disciplinary action has been taken against Howe but around 50 of the 150 employees in his FinTech unit were reassigned to another group last week, reports Bloomberg.
Lukenas’ death has served to highlight the grueling conditions faced by junior bankers and the excessive hours worked.
This incident also sparked debate about whether the culture within the finance industry is simply too demanding and whether appropriate safeguards are in place for employees.
Legal experts have suggested that the bank might be distancing itself from Howe to mitigate potential legal fallout from Lukenas’ death, although there is no concrete evidence that the junior banker’s excessive work hours directly contributed to his passing.
Still, Lukenas’ death, reportedly caused by a fatal blood clot, occurred after an extended period of intense work, with some family members believing the pressure he faced at work may have played a role.
Howe has never publicly commented on the matter and took down his LinkedIn account following the incident.
Despite a reduction in his oversight responsibilities, Matthew Koder, head of global corporate and investment banking, has said Howe continues remain a valued leader in the FIG group.
‘Gary has our full support as leader of our Global Financial Institutions Investment Banking group and we continue to invest in this leading franchise,’ Koder said to the New York Post.
Howe himself had a reputation for pushing junior bankers to their limits, which drew complaints from those who worked under him.
Those who had worked with him at UBS criticized his management style and the long hours required for tasks that included assembling pitch books, often for deals that never materialized.
At Bank of America his demanding nature followed him where he drove his team hard including the enforcement of a far stricter return-to-office policy post-pandemic which required employees to be in the office by 9:30am four days a week.
This summer, the bank implemented stricter measures to monitor employees’ work hours and rolled out a new system requiring junior bankers to report their hours daily instead of weekly.
This change came after a Wall Street Journal investigation revealed how some managers instructed employees to underreport their hours and ignore the 80-hour weekly limit put in place over a decade ago, requiring approval for any exceptions.
The limit was established after the death of an intern who had worked nearly 72 hours straight.
However, sources believe that even with these rules in place, some junior bankers, like Lukenas, found themselves working well beyond the recommended limits.
Lukenas, who joined Bank of America in March 2023, lived in Brooklyn with his wife and two young children.
The former member of the Army’s Special Forces moved to banking in an attempt to ‘pursue new opportunities for his family,’ according to his loved ones.
Those close to him say he had expressed frustration over the long hours and the toll they were taking on his personal life and had considered leaving the firm, speaking with recruiters about potential job opportunities at rival banks.
His death came just days after completing work on a $2 billion merger between UMB Financial and Heartland Financial.
One junior banker at BoA said of Lukenas’ death: ‘I think what we all would want is some acknowledgement about what happened, and at least not completely dismiss the fact that it could have been work-related.
‘And to at least just start having those conversations as to how they can make junior bankers work life much better because it’s been long overdue. And I believe that, if anything, it’s gotten worse.’
Howe attended Lukenas’ funeral alongside approximately 50 Bank of America employees, including senior executives.
A donation page was set up by the nonprofit group 51 Vets in his honor with a goal of reaching $1,000,000.
While the long-term impact of this incident on Bank of America’s internal culture remains to be seen, rival banks are also making changes.
Last month, JPMorgan, one of Bank of America’s chief competitors, implemented its own cap on work hours for junior bankers, limiting them to 80 hours per week.
Whether such moves will lead to lasting change in Wall Street’s high-pressure environment remains to be seen as employees and insiders watch how the industry responds to increasing scrutiny.
DailyMail.com has reached out to Bank of America for comment.