Sallie Krawcheck has purchased just over $1 million of Bank of America Corp stock, a little more than a week after becoming head of global wealth and investment management at the largest U.S. bank.

Krawcheck on Wednesday bought 63,000 shares at an average $15.97 each, according to a filing Thursday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Bank of America announced the hiring on Krawcheck on August 3. Her responsibilities include oversight of brokerage operations, including financial advisers from the former Merrill Lynch & Co, which Bank of America acquired on January 1.

Krawcheck was previously Citigroup Inc's chief financial officer and head of that bank's Smith Barney brokerage. She also previously ran the independent research firm Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.

It is common for newly-hired senior executives to buy shares of a new employer, to show support and to give them a stake in the company's performance.

Krawcheck is one of five internal Bank of America candidates in the running to eventually replace Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to discuss Lewis' succession plans.

She bought her shares on the same day hedge fund manager John Paulson revealed that his firm bought 168 million Bank of America shares in the second quarter, a stake worth $2.22 billion as of June 30.

Paulson had made billions of dollars in 2007 and 2008 by betting against banks and predicting trouble in mortgages.

Bank of America shares rose 89 cents, or 5.6 percent, to $16.82 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The KBW Bank Index <.BKX>, which includes the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank, was up 2.7 percent.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel; Editing Bernard Orr)

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