Bank of America is making a change at the top of a $2.4 billion business

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has appointed a new head of global capital markets, appointing leveraged-finance specialist A.J. Murphy to the role, according to people familiar with the matter.

She is replacing Jim Probert, who was appointed to that role in 2014 and is retiring, according to the people.

Murphy will oversee equity and debt capital markets at the bank. Bank of America finished 2015 with $1.4 billion in debt-capital-markets revenues, and $985 million in equity-capital-markets revenues, according to Dealogic.

Murphy's promotion comes a year after her return to Bank of America. She left the US bank in 2014 to join Goldman Sachs as a partner, only to rejoin a year later as co-head of global leveraged finance. Her departure to Goldman was controversial, as Bank of America reportedly denied her paid gardening leave.

Sarang Gadkari and Kevin Sherlock will become coheads of global leveraged finance, reporting to Murphy.

The appointment of Murphy follows the news that Bruce Thompson, the former CFO at Bank of America will stay on at the firm. Thompson stepped down from the CFO role last year, but decided to stay on as vice chairman. He also oversees global acquisition finance and capital commitments.

Wall Street banks have been having a tough time of it of late. Citigroup and JPMorgan have forecast a 25% drop in first quarter investment banking revenues. Many banks have responded by cutting jobs.