Monday's Headlines: BofA Merrill Lynch's new Hong Kong head shakes up culture

Bank of America Merrill Lynch's new head of Asia headquarters in Hong Kong is shaking up the office's culture and streamlining operations, according to Reuters.

Matthew Koder was poached in June from UBS where he was the superstar head of equity capital markets. To wit: Since his arrival, Koder has pushed change and given BofA-Merrill Lynch bankers a dose of the intensity he's known for... When some bankers arrived late for work at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch's Asia headquarters in Hong Kong earlier this year, they found a Post-It note on their computer screens. The terse message, "Good afternoon," needed little further explanation.

Koder has also shaken up reporting structure, as the region's investment and corporate banks now operate under one umbrella and has ambitions to grow the bank's fixed income business and "capture a bigger share of specific parts of equity capital deals, such as block trades."

Other News:

Goldman appointed 261 new managing directors-the smallest class since 259 were named in 2008. [DealBook]

Alleghany will buy reinsurer Transatlantic for $3.4 billion. [WSJ]

UBS considers cutting employee bonuses to offset trading scandal losses. [Financial Times]

Carlyle Group bought Churchill Financial. [Bloomberg]

Goldman and Apollo have made a joint bid for the MBNA Europe credit card business. [Bloomberg]

Lloyds named former Barclay's executive director David Roberts as interim chief if Antonio Horta-Osorio's return is delayed beyond December 31st. [Businessweek]

Chinese private equity firm Hony Capital plans to raise a record $2.6 billion in a new fund. [Reuters]

Inside the fall of BNY Mellon's Robert Kelly. [CNN Money]

Guidelines for keeping your social media practices FINRA-compliant. [On Wall Street]