Not too long ago, Bank of America's $50 billion all-stock bailout purchase of Merrill Lynch in 2008 seemed like another albatross around the neck of CEO Brian Moynihan. But as of late, Merrill Lynch has thrived as an investment bank.

The New York Times reports that, "Measured by fees collected for Wall Street work, it is second only to JP Morgan Chase and well ahead of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. The global banking and markets unit of Bank of America, which includes many of the operations it acquired in the Merrill merger, earned $3.7 billion in the first half of 2011. With help from the Thundering Herd, the bank's assets under management have increased to $2.2 trillion from $2 trillion in the last year, despite the turbulence in the financial markets."

But the ranks are restive as all their solidly profitable works gets swamped by the mortgage morass that the bank inherited by dint of the deal that really did become an albatross, the purchase Countrywide, a deal that some call one of the worst in corporate history. Certainly, it was the final rock on which former CEO Ken Lewis's career crashed. Moynihan is hoping to avoid a similar fate.

The ranks are staring at a declining stock price, which has sunk the value of their grants. They're also watching their corporate parent cut jobs and expenses as aggressively as possible and struggle to ink a mortgage abuse settlement with state AGs. There has been talk that Bank of America might spin off the Merrill Lynch in some form but that doesn't appear forthcoming. For now the Merrill Lynch-ers are toeing the line. But that will only last for so long. An internal revolt is the last thing Moynihan needs.

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