Under Candace Browning's leadership, Bank of America's global research team has continued to do what it does best: collaborating with colleagues across regions and asset classes to bring clients thoughtful, timely insights.
Browning has led the bank's research team since 2003. She is in charge of more than 690 analysts across more than 20 countries. Her division makes recommendations on more than 3,400 stocks, 46 currencies and 1,240 credits. Additionally, her group provides economic forecasts for 45 countries and 32 commodities.
In 2021, Bank of America became the first sell-side research firm with a cryptocurrency strategy. Browning's group has continued to provide research on cryptocurrency, though it renamed the category "digital assets" in 2022.
In the past year, Browning's group started the Bank of America Institute, an independent think tank that's not part of the research department. It's dedicated to "uncovering insights that will help move Bank of America and society forward" with a focus on three core areas: the economy, social and governance topics and industry transformation, said Browning, who serves as vice chair of the initiative.
The source of those insights? "We have anonymized data and lots of it" in Bank of America's 68 million accounts, Browning said. The Institute mines that data for insights and then analyzes and publishes the results.
"My mission here is very much to deliver real-time data analyses for the bank's eight lines of business, but also for policymakers and the general public," Browning said. Research, on the other hand, is for bank clients only.
Launching the new Bank of America Institute was a big effort, one that began with meeting 35 people across the business to hear about their needs and consider how an internal think tank could help grow their business. "If you're working in small-business banking, for instance, an analysis of what's happening to small businesses across the U.S. is of a lot of interest to your clients," Browning said. "It provides people with content they can use in conversations with clients, to help put client problems in context. It's enriching."
Browning transferred a managing director from the research group to head the institute. Five additional employees write the institute's articles.
In addition to her work as head of global research and vice chair of the Bank of America Institute, Browning continues her efforts toward diversity, equity and inclusion. She has formed a diversity and inclusion council within the research department. That group is building a bank of referrals from current research employees who recommend candidates who might do well in the department, whether there is a current job opening or not.
Browning also had to decide this year whether research group employees would work from home as the worst of the pandemic fades. Browning wasn't a fan of letting the group work from home indefinitely, she said. "After working at home for two and a half years, people didn't necessarily know each other, weren't clear on the culture of research and might have needed a refreshment on technology. They needed to up their game on working together as a team, increasing knowledge of both the platform and the people around them."
To help her team resharpen its skills, Browning began a program called Research Excellence. Participants meet every three weeks to talk together about various aspects of research. They also still work from home sometimes, having settled on a hybrid in-office and work-from-home arrangement.
