Bob Gallery, Bank of America’s market president for Boston, said in a recent interview that the wealth management division’s headquarters is in New York.

“That’s not new news,” Mr Gallery was quoted to have said.

However, Rep Barney Frank, the Massachusetts Democrat who also is chairman of the powerful House Committee on Financial Services, was not aware of the move. The issue may prove politically controversial as BoA has received billions of dollars in taxpayers' money under the government-led bailouts.

Bank of America/Merrill Lynch is now the world’s largest wealth manager, although it remains a predominantly domestic player, and UBS, for all its recent difficulties, remains the world’s biggest international player in this market.

Last week, BoA’s Brian Moynihan, who takes over from Bank of America's retiring chief executive Kenneth Lewis, said the giant US bank does not plan to sell its US Trust unit.

In the report on the NYC move, the BBJ said that until now, Bank of America executives and its communications staff have been coy about whether the headquarters would be moved to New York from Boston in the wake of the bank’s January takeover of Merrill Lynch.

In 2004, Bank of America established the wealth management division in Boston, partly to placate Mr Frank and other Massachusetts leaders worried about an exodus of high-paying jobs, it said.