Bank of America Corp named outsider Charles Noski its next chief financial officer, filling a key position that has been vacant for months, the largest U.S. bank by assets said on Wednesday.

Noski, 57, who will become CFO on May 11, most recently was chief financial officer of Northrop Grumman Corp , a defense contractor. He left Northrop in 2005.

Noski was also the chief financial officer of the telecommunications giant AT&T from 1999 to 2002.

His appointment is the latest in an ongoing reshuffle of the bank's senior management ranks, begun in January by new Chief Executive Brian Moynihan.

This is more of Moynihan putting his fingerprints on the company, said Paul Miller, a bank analyst with FBR Capital Markets.

Noski has served on a number of boards, including those of Microsoft Corp , Morgan Stanley , Air Products and Chemicals Inc , Automatic Data Processing Inc , AT&T, and Northrop Grumman.

Noski's departure also leaves a void on Morgan Stanley's board, where he served as chairman of the company's audit committee -- a key board position.

Noski is also chairman of Microsoft's audit committee, and will remain in that post.

BofA's former CFO Joseph Price now heads the bank's consumer, small business and credit card units.

The bank's interim CFO, Neil Cotty, will reassume his responsibilities as chief accounting officer. Cotty has served in the post since January, when Moynihan announced an executive management team overhaul that moved Price from the CFO role.

The announcement comes just two days before the bank is scheduled to announce first-quarter 2010 earnings, and two weeks before its annual shareholder meeting.

We conducted a thorough search, and wanted to have a CFO in place as soon as possible, said Jerry Dubrowski, a company spokesman.

Bank of America has been trying to right itself after its acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co just over a year ago became mired in controversy over soaring losses and bonus payments to Merrill bankers.

Both Price and former CEO Kenneth Lewis, Moynihan's predecessor, were charged earlier this year with securities fraud by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo in connection with the bank's disclosures leading up to the Merrill purchase.

That case is still pending.

(Reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore, Steve Eder in New York and Joe Rauch in Charlotte; Editing by Lincoln Feast, Dave Zimmerman)