There's been a change at the top of Bank of America Merrill Lynch's investment banking unit

LONDON, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Diego De Giorgi has become sole head of global investment banking at Bank of America Merrill Lynch as his previous co-head Karim Assef takes on a chairman role, according to a memo seen by Reuters on Wednesday.

Assef and De Giorgi became co-heads of the newly created position of global investment banking at the Wall Street firm in April 2015, with Assef based in New York and De Giorgi in London.

De Giorgi, who joined Bank of America Merrill Lynch from Goldman Sachs in 2013 as co-head of the lender's Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) corporate and investment banking, will remain in London, according to the memo.

Assef, who has been at the bank for around 20 years, will become chairman of global investmentbanking, a newly created position to focus on client relationships based in New York.

A spokeswoman for Bank of America confirmed the contents of the memo.

Bank of America, the second-largest U.S. bank by assets, reported its first profit increase in three quarters on Monday, foiling expectations for another drop, as bond trading surged and expenses fell.

Income from investment banking rose 13.3 percent to $1.46 billion, driven by higher debt and equity issuance activity.

(Reporting By Anjuli Davies, editing by Kirstin Ridley)

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