Lanty Smith will serve as nonexecutive chairman of the board, the bank said in a statement yesterday.

Thompson stays on the board and retains full management responsibility, spokeswoman Christy Phillips Brown said.

Wachovia, which is based in Charlotte, N.C., has more than 200 Philadelphia-area branches and, at 21 percent, has the largest share of deposits in the eight-county region.

"Ken Thompson is in a very hot seat," said Jaime Peters, an analyst at Morningstar Inc. "People are starting to call for his head the same way that they were calling for Chuck Prince's at Citigroup," Peters said, alluding how Citigroup Inc. replaced its CEO after posting a record fourth-quarter loss. Morningstar rates Wachovia at three out of five stars, similar to a hold rating, she said.

Some shareholders at last month's annual meeting called on Thompson to quit. His credibility was dented after the bank posted its first quarterly loss since 2001 and then revised the total 80 percent higher to $708 million. Wachovia also agreed in April to pay as much as $144 million to settle complaints it let telemarketers loot customer accounts, and it may incur a $1 billion charge tied to bad tax accounting on lease transactions.

Thompson, 57, also said earlier this year that Wachovia's $24 billion purchase in 2006 of Golden West Financial Corp. at the peak of the housing boom was "ill-timed."

The management change frees Thompson "to focus 100 percent of my time and attention on guiding the company through the current environment," he said in the statement.

The bank declined to discuss the change beyond the news release and said Thompson and Smith were not available for comment. Smith, chairman of Tippet Capital in Raleigh, N.C., has been a Wachovia director since 1987. He is also chairman of the executive committee.

Wachovia shares lost 88 cents, or 3.07 percent, to close at $27.83 in New York Stock Exchange trading. The stock has declined 27 percent this year.

The world's biggest banks have reported more than $318 billion of credit losses and asset write-downs stemming from the collapse of the U.S. subprime-mortgage market. Wachovia has recorded $7 billion in write-downs and credit losses over the last three quarters, while raising $10.5 billion in additional capital.