Bank of America chief Liam McGee to leave California.

Liam McGee, president of Bank of America California and the bank's consumer banking chief, has taken a promotion and will depart to corporate headquarters in Charlotte, N.C.--stripping Los Angeles of one of its top banking and civic leaders.

McGee, 49, is responsible for 40,000 employees in California and all consumer-banking activities in the United Slates, which encompasses 26 million customers with $200 billion in deposits.

He had put off leaving Los Angeles and tried to work out an agreement with Bank of America to stay in California. But last month the company announced its $44 billion takeover of FleetBoston Financial Corp., a huge bet on consumer banking.

McGee is one of the top executives picked to help integrate the merger, a reflection of his success in California. He was named to a newly created risk and control committee that reports directly to Kenneth D. Lewis, Bank of America's chairman and chief executive, who is based in Charlotte.

"I'm shocked and flabbergasted," said Chris Martin, chief executive of AC Martin Partners, the architectural and engineering firm, who works closely with McGee at the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. "It will be hard on a lot of us because he is such a strong and important leader within the business community."

No successor named

The company has not yet named a successor in California.

Last week, McGee was still in the process of notifying employees, business and community leaders of his departure. Through a bank spokeswoman, he declined comment.

Local bankers describe McGee as one of the few executives to rise through the ranks of Bank of America as it went through a succession of mergers. Community leaders are calling McGee's departure a major loss for Los Angeles, particularly for community reinvestment.

"Liam McGee leaving the slate will take all of the California clout with him," said Cynthia Amador, president and chief executive of CHARO, a nonprofit Latino organization in Los Angeles. "It will be quite damaging to our community development economy."

The California Reinvestment Committee, a coalition of 200 nonprofit community redevelopment groups, began circulating a protest letter last week requesting that the Federal Reserve Bank hold hearings in California to examine Bank of America's merger with Fleet.

The letter calls into question Bank of America's community reinvestment activities in California, which are expected to be 2 percent of the bank's net income before taxes.

The committee claims the bank has cut back on charitable contributions.

"It's my understanding that if highly-placed executives are in a city, that city gets more contributions and investments," said Alan Fisher, the committee's executive director. "Liam leaving means there is no one on the West Coast that is anywhere near the top level of the company."

When BankAmerica of San Francisco merged with NationsBank in 1998, the company pledged to lend $350 billion over 10 years in community development loans and investments.

California has been the largest recipient so far of those loans, receiving $57 billion, or 35 percent of the total $163 billion in affordable housing initiatives through 2002.

McGee was born in Ireland but grew up in Southern California and worked his way through college at the University of San Diego as a bank teller. He received a master's degree in business administration from Pepperdine University and a law degree from Loyola Law School.

He was a rising star at Security Pacific Corp. when it was bought by BankAmerica Corp. in 1992. He headed the California consumer bank for six years, then spent two years as head of the technology and operations group.

In 1998, McGee was named president of Bank of America Southern California, and in 2000 he was named president of Bank of America California. He assumed the added role of president of the bank's national consumer group in 2001.

He has served two terms as a director of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and also is a member of the board of trustees of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He also serves on the Los Angeles World Affairs Council, Town Hall Los Angeles, and the United Way of Greater Los Angeles.