Bank of America's chief financial officer is set to leave the firm less than a week after it briefly overtook Citigroup as the world's largest bank, citing the "suffocating" demands of regulatory oversight and internal controls as the reason for his departure.

Alvaro de Molina, who has been Bank of America's chief financial officer for the past 18 months, will leave the bank in January. He has worked at the bank for 17 years.