Rizzo replaces Philip Noblet, who has been promoted as the new chairman of the business, and will report to Adrian Mee, head of international M&A.
Commenting on the appointment, Mee was quoted by media sources as saying, "These two appointments are important steps and represent further investment in our strategically important global M&A business."
Rizzo, who specializes in financial mergers, was working with Goldman Sachs, prior to BofA. He joined Goldman Sachs in 1993 and left the company in January.
He has also advised on the sale of a Turkish lender Tefkenbank, 70% owned by EFG Eurobank of Greece to Burgan Bank of Kuwait, in a deal valued at nearly $350m.
BofA serves nearly 55 million consumer and small business relationships with almost 5,500 retail banking offices and about 16,300 ATMs and also has 30 million online banking active users, according to bank’s data as of November 2012.