BofA CEO welcomes Trump's economic policies as 'good thing' for business

By Lananh Nguyen

DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) -Bank of America Chief Executive Brian Moynihan on Tuesday welcomed economic policies announced by U.S. President Donald Trump since his inauguration as a "good thing" for business.

"They want to see the U.S. economy grow and prosper," Moynihan said in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday, referring to the new administration.

Corporate executives and policy makers gathering at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, are parsing the economic impact of Trump's initial executive orders.

JPMorgan Chase bankers worked through the night in a "war room" to assess the impact of U.S. President Donald Trump's inauguration-day executive orders, while global markets braced for volatility following his return to the White House.

Trump revoked nearly 80 executive actions by former Democratic President Joe Biden within hours of his second presidential oath of office, including orders for an immediate freeze on new federal regulations and government hiring.

Trump did not immediately impose tariffs, and said his new administration was not ready for a universal tariff on all imports into the United States.

"Everything we heard yesterday is not different than what we heard in the campaign ... so now they've got to start to figure out how to implement these changes," Moynihan said.

Tariffs of 10% to 15% are unlikely to have a significant impact on the economy or spur inflation, he added, citing BofA research.

Moynihan said banks will bring out financial products for the use of cryptocurrencies for payments and transfers if regulations allow.

"If rules get applied then I believe we'll see the industry coming in and saying - Okay, this is no different than the formation of money market mutual funds years ago," he said.

US DEBT

Moynihan said the government will have to slow down the growth of the debt relative to the country's economic growth, stressing on the need to address the issue given the impending threat of downgrades from rating agencies.

"We're running deficits in reasonably good times that is a little bit unusual, and yet we're still paying for the stimulus that went on to help cover up the pandemic impact on the economy," he said.

"We're still paying for the impacts of increasing military spending due to the kinetic wars that have gone on, and our support for them."

Moynihan also spoke about Trump's move on immigration policy, saying it does not affect the bank as an employer.

"Our companies and government are beneficiaries of the immigration over the years in terms of talent capabilities," he said.

"And when that talent comes to keep in this country, you got to have them have the right to work."

Moynihan also spoke about the bank's succession plan, saying BofA has a strong management team in place and a potential successor will be chosen by the board.

"For the top three layers, we have successor list already in place and we run it every six months," he said, adding he is still enjoying his job.

(Reporting by Lananh Nguyen in Davos, Switzerland; additional reporting by Saeed Azhar, Editing by Louise Heavens, Alexander Smith and Deepa Babington)