Morning Coffee: Bank of America unit struck by sex scandal to be led by diversity champion. Doomy prediction from J.P. Morgan head

Bank of America is making changes to its prime brokerage business. Fresh from a sex scandal which saw Omeed Malik, the former head of its global prime brokerage sales business fired for allegedly making advances towards colleagues and having relationships with female subordinates, and then two other people let go for allegedly attempting to cover up for him, the bank has parachuted in a new boss to clear away any lingering cobwebs.

Business Insider reports that Bank of America's U.S. prime brokerage sales team will now be led by Kim Stolz, an MD who was previously based in London as BofA's head of equity derivatives hedge fund sales for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Stolz is clearly a very talented hedge fund saleswoman, but for a business seemingly blighted by machismo, she's also something more: an out lesbian with a historically successful modelling career.

Previously signed to Ford Models in New York, Stolz was a contestant on Cycle 5 of America’s Next Top Model.in 2005, where she came fifth. Her bio says her TV appearance was memorable for the fact that she kissed "fellow contestant Sarah Rhoades in the limo," and "made out" with her while they were living in the Top Model House. Stolz worked at MTV from 2006 to 2010 before joining Citi in 2012 and Bank of America in 2014. She's a member of BofA's LGBT Executive Council, and has said that the bank, "promotes an LGBT-inclusive culture that makes me feel extremely proud to be who I am." Stolz's Wikipedia page further describes her as an "out lesbian" and says her father worked for Goldman Sachs while her mother was a former supermodel who worked for Ralph Lauren.

As head of U.S. prime brokerage sales, Stolz won't be stepping directly into Malik's shoes, but she'll almost certainly be managing members of his former team. When he left, Malik was global head of capital strategy and head of Americas prime brokerage origination. Stolz will be more the latter than the former. Either way, BofA looks like it's orchestrating a very different and more inclusive culture and some people at BofA are in for a big change.

Separately, Daniel Pinto, head of the corporate and investment bank at J.P. Morgan, thinks the recent market correction could be nothing compared to what's to come. A 30% to 40% correction in equity markets on the table in two or three years time, Pinto told Business Insider. 

Meanwhile:

Law firms Linklaters and Pinsent Masons have reported that female employees earn 23 percent and 22 percent less on average, respectively, than their male colleagues. The gap at EY is 20 percent. (Bloomberg) 

French economy minister: "Financial services cannot be in a free trade agreement, for many reasons, for reasons of stability, for the sake of supervision, because there are very specific rules for financial services.” (Evening Standard) 

Gary Cohn is expected to leave his White House job if Trump decides to go forward with tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. (Bloomberg)  

Gary Cohn resigned: "It has been an honour to serve my country and enact pro-growth economic policies to benefit the American people, in particular the passage of historic tax reform." (Financial Times)  

Morgan Stanley wants stock researchers who know about crypto currencies. (Business Insider) 

Nomura's got a new (Japanese) global head of investment bank as its tries to crack the U.S. market. (Bloomberg) 

Goldman wants six people in the UK for its new retail banking operation. (Business Insider) 

The average salary for men working in science and engineering in the UK in 2017 was £41,200, while women were paid £33,000, a difference of 20 per cent. (New Scientist)

Man who used to run $40bn for BlackRock now runs a farm in Dorset. "I didn’t have a family background in farming." (Marketwatch)

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