BofA Launches New Online Brokerage Service

Bank of America Merrill Lynch expects to launch a new online brokerage service June 21 hoping to attract the young and less affluent investors who trade through discount firms like Charles Schwab or E*Trade. According to Reuters, trades through the new service called Merrill Edge will cost $8.95 each, and will place the company in direct competition with other online discount brokerages like TD Ameritrade, E-Trade Financial Corp. and Charles Schwab Corp. E-Trade and TD Ameritrade users currently pay $9.99 per trade. Schwab charges $8.95. The new Merrill Edge service combines the two online brokerages that Bank of America Owns: Quick & Reilly, which was folded into Bank of America Investments in 2004, and Merrill Lynch’s internet and call-center platform. Bank of America acquired Merrill Lynch in 2009 About 500,000 customers who now use the existing online brokerage services offered by Bank of America and Merrill Lynch will be transferred to Merrill Edge throughout the summer, a BofA spokesperson told Reuters. The new service will court clients with $250,000 or less. Merrill Lynch’s wealth operations typically work with accounts with more than $250,000 of liquid assets and sometimes those with several million dollars.