Rochdale Securities LLC said veteran banking analyst Richard Bove has joined the company from Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services Inc.

He joined Ladenburg in May 2008, after it took over Punk Ziegel.

Bove was one of the first banking analysts to recommend selling financial stocks as credit market problems began and he correctly predicted that the booming growth of the financial system could not be sustained by economic growth.

Last July, BankAtlantic Bancorp Inc sued him for defamation and negligence over a research report, after Bove named the bank in a list of lenders that might be next to fail after IndyMac Bancorp.

Among the analysts covering U.S. commercial banks, he was ranked 19 out of 84 analysts, according to StarMine data.

Since joining the securities industry at the end of 1965, Bove worked his way up holding several positions, from a salesperson to the director of research, in various Wall Street firms. (Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Bangalore; Editing by Jarshad Kakkrakandy)