Bank of America Merrill Lynch appointed Michael Evans a managing director and head of its financial institutions group coverage team in Australia, The Australian Financial Review's Street Talk blog reported July 6, citing the company's investment banking head Joseph Fayyad.

Evans replaces Adam Penny, who resigned. Most recently, Evans was a managing director and head of FIG M&A coverage at Nomura Holdings Inc.

The company also appointed Pete Nicholls a director in its FIG team. Nicholls joins from Bank of America Merrill Lynch in the U.K., where he covered banking, consumer credit and specialty finance clients.

BofA Merrill Lynch is the marketing name for the global banking and global markets businesses of Bank of America Corp.