UPDATE 1-Temasek hires ex-BofA banker Curl to head financials

* Greg Curl was formerly chief risk officer at Bank of America

* Title of president puts him one rank below CEO Ho Ching

* To start on Sept 1

(Adds details, background)

By Saeed Azhar and Kevin Lim

SINGAPORE, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Temasek Holdings [TEM.UL] hired Greg Curl, who was once touted as a CEO candidate for Bank of America (BAC.N), as president as the Singapore state investor beefs up its top management team.

Curl, 62, who worked as BofA's chief risk officer, will oversee financial services and strategic engagements in the Americas, Temasek said in a statement.

He will look after Temasek's most important sector as financial services accounted for 37 percent of its $134 billion portfolio as of March.

Curl, once considered a successor to Bofa's former CEO Ken Lewis, will join Temasek as president, the same rank as Simon Israel and former Singapore Exchange (SGXL.SI) CEO Hsieh Fu Hua who are both one level below CEO Ho Ching.

Israel and Hsieh are, however, also executive directors at Temasek.

Temasek CEO Ho, who is also wife of Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, said the new hires will add "tremendous depth" to its leadership.

Ho has stayed on as chief executive after strategic differences led to the premature departure of CEO-designate and former BHP Billiton (BHP.AX) head Chip Goodyear in July 2009.

Last month, Temasek said Ho would not be stepping down anytime soon and there was no active search for a successor. ID:nSGC003653].

Temasek said Curl, who retired from Bank of America in March, brings with him 34 years of banking and international mergers and acquisition experience. Curl will start work on Sept 1.

Temasek owns significant stakes in Standard Chartered (STAN.L) and Singapore's DBS (DBSM.SI) as well as smaller stakes in Chinese lenders such as China Construction Bank (0939.HK).

Temasek, which exited from its investments in Bank of America and Barclays (BARC.L) at huge loss in 2009, has been largely focusing on Asia and has recent done small investments in Latin America.

Curl helped engineer Bank of America's investments in China Construction Bank, the country's no. 2 lender, in 2005 and also served on the board of the Chinese bank, Temasek said. (Editing by Anshuman Daga)