John Thain plans to revamp the senior management culture at Merrill Lynch in part as an effort to better emulate Goldman Sachs, one of Merrill’s chief competitors and Mr Thain’s former employer.

Mr Thain, whose tenure as Merrill chief executive begins on Monday, said in an interview that he believed there was insufficient co-operation between senior Merrill executives, a problem that could have contributed to the bank’s disastrous $8bn mortgage-related writedown.