Nelson Chai is the new finance chief of Merrill Lynch

Merrill Lynch’s new chief executive John A Thain has named Nelson Chai of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) as Merrill’s chief financial officer (CFO). Chai, 42 — who was Thain’s CFO at NYSE-Euronext — will join Merrill next week.

Before joining the NYSE as CFO in January, Chai held the same post with Archipelago Holdings — which was acquired by the exchange — from 2000 to 2005. He succeeds Jeffrey N Edwards, who previously headed investment banking before becoming CFO in 2005. However, Edwards will continue to work at Merrill, in a role yet to be announced.

This follows from a management shake-up that began shortly after Merrill Lynch reported $7.9 billion in credit costs just three weeks after saying those costs would total only $4.5 billion.