International
Leonhard Fischer, chief executive officer for Credit Suisse in Europe, Middle East and Africa has resigned with immediate effect to pursue a career opportunity outside the bank.

Whilst a successor is being sought by the Swiss bank, Mr Fischer’s responsibilities will be assumed by Michael Philipp, chairman of the EMEA region.

Mr Fischer is the former head of Winterthur who was persuaded to stay at Credit Suisse rather than follow the insurance unit to its new home at Axa.

Mr Fischer reported to Ossie Grübel and had broad responsibility across Credit Suisse's three main business lines, investment banking, private banking and asset management.

He had been tipped as a possible successor to Mr Grübel, an ambition thwarted by the announcement of Brady Dougan, an American investment banker, as Credit Suisse’s next chief executive.

Barclays Wealth has appointed Ravi Bulchandani as managing director, head of alternative investments.

Mr Bulchandani will report to Kevin Lecocq, chief investment officer. He joins Barclays Wealth from Morgan Stanley, where he was managing director, head of alternative investments, Global Wealth Management for Europe and the Middle East.

In this newly created role, Mr Bulchandani will develop strategy, funds research and structuring capabilities for investments in hedge funds, private equity, real estate and commodities.

Morgan Stanley has appointed Elizabeth Pasciucco as chief marketing officer for its global wealth management group.

Ms Pasciucco joins from Putnam Investments, where she was most recently director of marketing, communications and education, in June, and will succeed Mimi Bock, who has been named Carolinas/Virginia district manager.

UK
HSBC has appointed Mark McCombe to succeed Alain Dromer as head of Group Investment Businesses.

HSBC Private Bank has announced that Declan Sheehan will take over from Mark McCombe as the regional chief executive officer for HSBC Private Bank in the UK and Channel Islands subject to the necessary regulatory approvals.

Mr Sheehan will remain responsible for HSBC’s global trust and estate planning business. He joined HSBC in 2006, having been responsible previously for private banking businesses during his 18 year career with JP Morgan in Europe and Asia.

Barclays Wealth’s Investment and Product Office has made another senior hire with the appointment of Michael Dicks as head of Research and Strategy. He joins the firm after eleven years with Lehman Brothers where he was chief European economist.

Prior to Lehman Brothers Mr Dicks had worked as an Economist with both JP Morgan and the Bank of England.

As head of Research and Strategy, Mr Dicks will work directly with the portfolio management team to optimise investment strategy. Advanced econometric and macroeconomic models will be employed to inform the analysis.

Barclays Wealth has appointed Torben Nielsen as managing director, head of balance sheet, reporting to chief investment officer, Kevin Lecocq.

In this newly created role, Mr Nielsen will oversee the strategic development of market leading products and services in areas where Barclays Wealth can utilise the availability of a large balance sheet to the benefit of its clients.

Mr Nielsen was previously employed at Nordic Investment Bank, Helsinki, as executive vice President, chief financial officer and treasurer.

Former Barclays Wealth managing director, Ray Greenshields, has joined Standard Life as a non-executive director to assist in the growth of the UK insurer’s wealth management proposition.

Prior to Barclays Wealth, Mr Greenshields was employed at Zurich and AMP asset management.

Credit Suisse has appointed Mark Norris as managing director and chief operating officer for the private banking business in the UK.

In addition to his COO role, Mr Norris will assist in implementing new products and business initiatives, working closely with the senior management team in London and Zurich.

He will be based in London and will report to Jeremy Marshall, chief executive officer for Credit Suisse’s private banking business in the UK.

Mr Norris joins from JP Morgan Asset Management, where he most recently held the position of head of operations Europe.

Kleinwort Benson has made two senior appointments in the Channel Islands, reinforcing its presence in what it sees as a major growth area.

Denise Mileham has been appointed head of fund administration in Guernsey. She will lead a team that offers a broad range of fund administration services to open and closed-ended funds.

Before joining Kleinwort Benson, she directed the new business division at Close Fund Services and has also worked at Credit Suisse and Barclaytrust in Guernsey, as well as NatWest in the UK.

Jim Gilligan has been promoted to Channel Islands co-ordinator of Kleinwort Benson’s private wealth management division in the Channel Islands. He has worked in offshore finance for over 15 years, primarily in Guernsey and Switzerland. He will be responsible for all client-related services.

His father, of the same name, recently retired but remains on Kleinwort Benson’s board.

Coutts has appointed Camilla Stowell as a senior private banker to its ultra high net worth Private Office.

Ms Stowell joins from Schroders, will be based in the bank’s Strand office in London and will report to Duncan MacIntyre, head of the Coutts Private Office.

Julie De Garis has joined Investec Trust in Guernsey at board level as head of its risk and compliance team, assessing business risk and putting policies and procedures into practice.

Ms De Garis joins from Praxis Fiduciaries, where she was its compliance officer.

Guernsey-based Praxis Group, Jim Gilligan has been appointed its first non-executive chairman.

From 2000 until he retired late in 2006, Mr Gilligan was managing director of Kleinwort Benson in Guernsey.

Cheviot Asset Management has appointed two new partners.

Charles Macfarlane joins as head of business development and a member of the firm’s executive committee. He brings with him experience and connections from similar roles held at Fleming Private Asset Management (now JP Morgan) and NCL Investments (now Smith & Williamson).

David Miller also joins at the same time as head of alternative investments. Until recently he was managing director and head of investments (British Isles) for the Royal Bank of Canada’s Global Private Banking arm.

Mr Miller will sit on Cheviot’s investment committee, chaired by Bill Eason and work alongside Alan McIntosh, the chief investment officer.

UK wealth manager Ansbacher has appointed Robert Morrall and Neil McLean as senior bankers working in the bank’s specialist lending team.

The pair will continue Ansbacher’s established expertise in yacht finance and develop new specialist lending offerings.

Mr Morrall joins Ansbacher from BNP Paribas Private Bank where he was head of Credit Development Asia.

Mr McLean joins from Nedbank where he held senior positions in structured banking.

Both appointments will be based in Ansbacher’s London office.

Jersey law firm Voisin has appointed Bill Gibbon as a new partner in recognition of his strong contribution to the success of the practice.

Mr Gibbon has been with Voisin since 1996 having originally qualified in the City of London as an English solicitor with Linklaters.

Mr Gibbon has led Voisin’s investment funds, hedge funds and shariah funds department since joining the firm. He is an acknowledged expert on Islamic structures and has been instrumental in pioneering developments in Islamic securitisations.

Caroline Mackenzie has joined London-based law firm Hunters as a private client partner.

Ms Mackenzie joins from Thomson, Snell and Passmore. Previously, she was at Alexanders and an associate at Taylor Wessing.

Ms Mackenzie has worked in tax and estate planning and trusts and also advises on Court of Protection matters.

Hunters has given additional support to its private client department by promoting three assistants, Katie Martin, Louise Ellis and Lara McLaren, to associate.

The firm now has nine private client partners and a total of 24 fee earners.

City of London executive search firm, Drayton Finch, has appointed James Anderson as director of its wealth management division.

Mr Anderson has enjoyed a successful career both in running his own wealth management executive search firm for several years, and prior to that, in private banking, having worked at Merrill Lynch for ten years.

Drayton Finch’s private banking team will continue to focus mainly on the recruitment of senior private bankers and will maintain a mix of retained and contingent assignments, according to Mr Anderson.

UK-based head hunter, Omerta Group, has set up a wealth management and private banking practice to broaden out its established capability in alternative and institutional asset management.

Wealth management specialist head-hunter Nick Dogilewski has joined Omerta to set up and manage the new wealth management and private banking practice.

Mr Dogilewski previously headed-up the five-strong wealth management practice at Drayton Finch, the wealth and asset management recruitment business.

He will be joined by Richard Barber, an ex-Drayton Finch wealth management UK specialist, in addition to more, yet to be announced, hires.

Omerta was established in 2002.

Mark McMullen has joined Smith & Williamson, a UK top ten accountancy firm, as a director in its private client tax services department.

He specialises in advising private clients and their families on their financial and tax affairs, in particular non-UK domiciliaries, UK direct taxes, and UK property and trusts.

Before joining Smith & Williamson, he was a director with Chiltern Private Clients.

EFG Private Bank, the London-based Private Banking arm of EFG International, has appointed Dermot Lewis and Jeremy Piggott as directors in its UK private banking team and Michael Betesh as director of Business Development.

Mr Lewis and Mr Piggot join from Clydesdale Bank, prior to which they worked together at Coutts.

SG Hambros Bank has appointed Duncan Shimmin who joins the regional private banking team from ABN Amro.

Mr Shimmin has spent the majority of his career advising clients in the North of England. He has also worked at Deloitte, Proact and Wise Speake.

As previously reported, Melanie Satterthwaite has also joined from ABN Amro, having previously been a director, client relationship management with Julius Baer where she was responsible for developing the bank’s UK private client base outside Switzerland.

She also spent seven years at Credit Suisse, five years at Deloitte and six years with Kleinwort Benson Private Banking.

Her role at SG Hambros will involve developing the Bank’s presence, services and offering in the North of England.

The appointments will add to the existing team of Bev Smalley and Chris Perkins who have been covering the Yorkshire area for more than four years.

SG Hambros Bank has also appointed Sarah Whiteley as an associate director.

The appointment is part of a strategic move by the bank to expand its philanthropic offering. Ms Whiteley will work alongside associate director Jonathan Norbury to develop the SG Hambros’ offering to UK charities.

Ms Whiteley was previously a director of Jewson Associates, having spent six years helping to grow the team from three to twelve and managing relationships with charity and private client trustees. Prior to this, she was a relationship manager at Lazard Asset Management.

Switzerland
Rothschild Private Banking and Trust has appointed José Luis Ferrer Lorenzo new head of Southern Europe and Latin America.

Following the appointment of Christoph Schärer and Thomas Pixner, Ferrer Lorenzo is the third prominent new addition to Rothschild’s Client Relations Office.

At its most recent meeting, the board of directors of Rothschild Bank, Switzerland also appointed all three region heads as well as Daniel Arnold, chief financial officer, to its Swiss executive board.

José Luis Ferrer Lorenzo was previously chief executive of BBVA Suiza, the Swiss international private banking unit of the Spanish bank BBVA. Prior to that, he was chief executive of BBVA Privanza Bank Jersey and held various senior management positions in Barcelona, UK and Madrid.

As part of Rothschild’s strategy to strengthen its client services and acquisition capacities within its private banking business, two teams comprising a total of nine employees are to switch from Clariden Leu to Rothschild in Zurich.

The teams will concentrate on clients in Russia, Central Asia and the Middle East. The head of this market region is Christoph Schärer, who also recently joined Rothschild from Clariden Leu.

The directors of Julius Baer Holding will propose to the Annual General Meeting scheduled for 17 April 17 that Gareth Penny and Daniel Sauter be elected to the board for the first time.

Gareth Penny, group managing director of De Beers SA, has an intimate knowledge of the emerging markets through his career of more than twenty years at the world’s largest diamond producer and seller.

Daniel Sauter, is an entrepreneur and chairman of the board of directors of Alpine Select, Zug.

Mr Sauter started his banking career with appointments at Gewerbebank and Bank Leu in Zurich and eventually went on to be a co-founder and member of the board of directors of commodity firm Xstrata in Zug.

As announced in December 2006, Daniel Borel, co-founder and chairman of the board of directors of Logitech International, has decided not to seek re-election after expiration of his second term in office.

The board will also propose the re-election of Monika Ribar Baumann and Rolf Jetzer for another period of three years.

Burkhart Varnholt will join Bank Sarasin as chief investment officer and new head of the asset management, products and sales division on 1 September 2007 at the latest, when he will also take up his seat on the bank’s executive committee.

Until Mr Varnholt joins, the asset management, product and sales division will continue to be managed on an interim basis by Joachim Straehle, chief executive officer of the Sarasin Group.

From 1998 until his switch to Bank Sarasin, Mr Varnholt worked for Credit Suisse Private Banking in Zurich.

Arbuthnot Latham has appointed Hans-Rudolf Strasser as chief executive of its newly-formed Swiss operation.

Mr Strasser joins from AKB Privazbank in Zurich, where he was head of the private bank. He was previously at Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs.

Applications for the Swiss bank will be made to the relevant regulatory bodies shortly and it is anticipated that trading will commence in the second half of 2007.

The Vontobel Group has promoted both Thomas Amgwerd and Martin Freiermuth to senior vice president within its private banking business effective from 1 April 2007.

Mr Amgwerd, who has joint Swiss and Canadian nationalities joined the bank in Vancouver, Canada in 1998 and has recently been responsible for the Canadian Representative Office, which he opened, as well as coordination with the Far East.

Previously he worked in a variety of capacities for Credit Suisse in Canada, Hong Kong and Switzerland.

Swiss national Dr Freiemuth has been head of private banking services at Vontobel, Switzerland since 2005. He joined the bank in 2002, having been a consultant at McKinsey & Co.

Dr Freiemuth's banking career started at UBS in Switzerland where he held a number of different positions from 1994 to 1998.

Multi-family office Stonehage Group has announced the opening of an office in Zurich and the appointment of Ewald Scherrer and Tanja Jegger.

The move is aimed at strengthening Stonehage’s presence in the Swiss market and follows the recent appointment of Frederic Carbonnier as a director with the firm’s eighty strong team in Neuchatel; he joined last year from UBS Wealth Management.

The new office will offer private client services to ultra high net worth families. There will be four staff at first, with the firm predicting ten employees by year end.

Mr Scherrer, who will head the office, joins from HSBC Guyerzeller in Zurich where he was a first vice president. He will be responsible for managing existing client relationships and new business development.

Ms Jegger joins from Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch, where she was a vice president and will focus on developing the firm’s philanthropic offering through the activities of the Stonehage Charitable Trust as well as advising clients on their philanthropic activities.

Philippe Bertherat has taken over as head of private banking at Pictet & Cie, replacing Jacques de Saussure and Nicolas Pictet.

Mr Bertherat, who joined the bank 10 years ago, is one of the eight Pictet partners.

Europe
The Dusseldorf-based branch of private bank Sal. Oppenheim has a new managing director, with the retirement of Michael Muller.

Mr Muller, who has headed the branch since it opened in 2002, will be succeeded by Frank Wieser, who comes to the role after a stint as managing director in northern Bavaria and Thuringia for Deutsche Bank's Private Wealth Management unit.

Yves Thieffry has been appointed deputy chief executive officer of Societe Generale Private Banking, replacing Bernard David, who joins the executive management of the international retail banking division.

Mr Thieffry was previously chief operating officer at SG Corporate and Investment Banking.

In another change at the top level, Societe Generale Bank and Trust has appointed Laurent Joly as manager of Private Banking and Markets in Luxembourg.

He takes over from Vincent Decalf who was recently promoted to managing director there.

Andrew Wright, ex-global chief financial officer for the Deutsche Private Client and Asset Management division has been appointed by Lehman Brothers as managing director and chief financial officer for Europe.

Mr Wright will be responsible for the financial management of Lehman in Europe, including treasury, tax, product control, financial control and financial planning and analysis.

Barclays Wealth has appointed Francesco Grosoli as chief executive officer/director general of its Monaco Private Banking business.

Mr Grosoli will join the business in May from his position as head of Private Banking at HSBC in Monaco, where he was accountable for teams servicing clients from Europe, Middle East, Africa and Latin America.

In his new role Francesco will lead the expansion of Barclays Wealth's Monaco-based operations and will join the International Private Banking management team reporting to Gerard Aquilina.

The appointment follows the decision of Barclays Wealth’s existing director general, Jean-Bernard Buisson, to retire from the bank after 36 years.

The Spanish subsidiary of Portuguese Banco Espirito Santo has tapped Santander wealth management subsidiary Banif for José Luís Santos García, its new head of private and personal banking, according to media reports.

The Portuguese bank has also been reported as saying that building private banking services in other big cities like Barcelona and Valencia is one of its top strategic aims in Spain.

Asia
Citigroup Private Bank has appointed Kaven Leung as market region head – Asia. In this newly-created role, he will be responsible for the private banking business of Citigroup in one of the fastest growing regions in the world for private wealth.

Mr Leung will oversee the private bank’s businesses for Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and manage more than 400 private banking professionals (including a team in New York) serving these markets.

He will continue to be based in Hong Kong and report to Deepak Sharma, chief executive officer of Citigroup Global Wealth Management Asia Pacific and Middle East.

He was most recently North Asia Region Head for The Citigroup Private Bank overseeing the markets of Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Korea, Thailand and the Philippines.

Clive Smith, chairman of Deutsche Bank Group in Australia and New Zealand will retire from 15 June 2007, making way for John Macfarlane, most recently chief executive and chief country officer for the German banking group in Japan.

Mr Macfarlane started his career with the New Zealand Treasury in the early 1980s before joining NMRB/Capel Court in Melbourne as Financial Markets Economist in 1986.

Citigroup Private Bank in Singapore has confirmed the appointment of Cheung Shuk Kwan as head of structured products.

Ms Cheung has been with the bank for over 10 years and replaces Anurag Mahesh who is believed to have left at the end of January to join Goldman Sachs, according to unconfirmed reports.

Sources close to Citi say that up to eight members of the private bank’s product development team have left to join Ravi Raju at Deutsche Wealth Management who himself left Citi in February.

Mr Raju was head of investments for Asia Pacific and Middle East at Citi's global wealth management arm.

A team of six key client advisors and four assistants led by Shern Liang Tan has left UBS in Singapore to join Goldman Sachs.

UBS’ Key Client Group advisors look after clients each with over $50 million in investable assets.

Mr Tan was previously a private banker at Citigroup Private Bank in Singapore, having joined in 1991. He is thought to have been at UBS for around three years.

Credit Suisse's private banking ambitions in Australia have been dealt a severe blow with the shock departure of chief executive Cedric Davies, who has left the role after less than six months.

Mr Davies, who came to Credit Suisse after private client advisory roles with Deutsche Bank and Macquarie Bank in Australia, is currently on leave but a Credit Suisse spokeswoman in Singapore confirmed he would not be returning to the bank. She declined to give any reasons for the departure.

Reto Marx, who is based in Singapore as Credit Suisse's head of wealth management, will take over the role on an interim basis.

ANZ Private Bank has a new chief executive in Australia, with former managing director for Europe and the Americas Mark Ellis being appointed to the role.

At the same time, the private banking head Michael Saadie has been appointed managing director for Asia.

Also in the re-shuffle, former company secretary Tim L'Estrange has been appointed to the position as managing director for Europe and the Americas.

Barclays Wealth has hired Didier von Daeniken, Credit Suisse’s former co-head of Asia Pacific Private Banking and head of Private Banking in Southeast Asia and Australasia.

Mr von Daeniken, joins Barclays as a managing director and head of Barclays Wealth, Asia Pacific, from 1 June.

He will be responsible for strategy and the day-to-day management of Barclays Wealth’s business in Asia Pacific and will drive its transformation into what the bank hopes will be a leading wealth management player in the region.

Mr von Daeniken will report to Robert Morrice and will be based in Singapore.

UK based international law firm, DLA Piper has strengthened its offering to high net worth clients with the appointment of tax law specialist Patrice Marceau as a partner in the firm's Hong Kong office.

Mr Marceau will work in DLA Piper's corporate group with a key role to lead the tax advisory team.

US
Monique Johnson has joined the Private Bank of California as executive vice president and chief banking officer. She will report directly to president Richard Smith.

The Private Bank of California is headquartered in Century City, California, with clients including high net worth and high-income individuals, business professionals and their professional service firms, business owners, entertainment service businesses, local businesses and non-profit organisations.

Bank of America has announced a new management team based in Nashville to lead its private banking and investments business in the region.

The company named George Sousoulas and Carla Brown market director and market manager respectively, in charge of a team of client managers and financial advisors across Tennessee and Arkansas that service affluent clients with up to $3 million in investable assets.

Mr Sousoulas joined the bank’s investment services division in 2003 from advisory firm Raymond James & Associates. Ms Brown worked her way up in the institution after starting as a part time teller 13-years ago.

Both Mr Sousoulas and Ms Brown are locals to the Tennessee area.

First Republic Bank has appointed James Runge as a senior relationship manager. He will work in First Republic's Las Vegas office.

Before joining First Republic, Mr Runge worked for US Bank in Las Vegas as a relationship manager in the private client group; before that, he worked for First Commerce Corporation, now part of JP Morgan Chase, in private banking.

Boston-based investment management firm Eaton Vance has appointed Robert Whelan as vice president and director of finance.

He will become chief financial officer upon the retirement of William Steul in October.

Since 2004 Mr Whelan has been the executive vice president and chief financial officer of Boston Private Wealth Management Group, where he is responsible for all financial functions of the company and its thirteen subsidiaries and is a member of the executive committee.

Before joining Boston Private, he was the senior vice president and chief financial officer of MFS Investment Management.

Signature Bank, a niche New York City private bank, opened a new office in Manhattan’s financial district with an established team of four bankers it poached from HSBC, according to the firm.

The new office brings to 18 the number of private client offices Signature has in New York’s metropolitan area focused on servicing privately owned businesses owners and senior managers.

Craig Nichols, former senior relationship manager for HSBC’s Premier Bank, and Anthony DeMattia, former HSBC vice president and small business relationship manager, have each been named group director and senior vice president for Signature Bank.

Peter Su, former HSBC premier relationship manager, and Dominick Chechile, former business relationship manager with HSBC, have been appointed associate group directors and vice presidents for Signature Bank.

The four HSBC converts worked together for three years in the European bank’s downtown New York Premier Bank office, on the same street and within close proximity to Signature Bank’s new location where they are now based.

Signature Bank has also hired Robin Fredella as group director and senior vice president for the bank's New Rochelle, New York office.

Ms Fredella, who will lead one of the two banking teams based out of the New Rochelle office, joins from Bank of America where she was a vice president and client manager.

Additionally, Dina Casella has been appointed associate group director and vice president at the firm’s office in midtown Manhattan.

Ms Casella joins the Pat Capparelli and Joseph Festa team that joined Signature in November 2006. Previously Ms Casella was a vice president and senior business relationship manager for HSBC.

The bank has also appointed Anna Garen associate group director and vice president with the John Myszko private client team based at the bank's Fifth Avenue corporate headquarters. Ms Garen was previously at JP Morgan Chase.

UMB Financial Corporation has promoted Dana Abraham to executive vice president for investment and wealth management and private banking.

Ms Abraham will oversee UMB’s team of wealth advisors who deliver financial planning, trust and fiduciary products, and investment services, and will continue to expand private banking products and services to all UMB markets.

She was hired as a senior vice president for private banking in October 2005.

Larry Radford, regional manager for the Southwest at the US operation of UBS Wealth Management, is retiring by the end of the year.

Mr Radford, who is 60, announced his plans to retire in Houston, where he oversees 28 branches and around 580 financial advisors. He has been at UBS and its predecessor firms for 20 years.

Mr Radford, who came to UBS from PaineWebber via Kidder Peabody, reports to Jim Pierce, Western division manager at the bank.

A successor has yet to be named, according to the bank.

The US banking operations of the Leumi Group, an Israeli banking group, has appointed former North Fork Bank vice president, Denis Byrne, vice president and manager of its downtown commercial and private banking office.

The branch is located in the heart of New York’s “garment centre” and is responsible for servicing the textiles and apparel middle-market, including importers, distributors, manufacturers, and retailers of men’s, women’s, and children’s clothing and accessories.

In the US, Bank Leumi is a full-service commercial bank that provides financial services to middle and upper-middle market firms, international businesses, and not-for-profit organisations through offices in New York, Illinois, California, Florida and an offshore office in the Cayman Islands.

This is the second senior management appointment the group has made in the US in as many months. In February the bank announced the appointment of a former Citigroup senior technology officer, Sidney Gottesman, as executive vice president and chief operating officer of Bank Leumi USA.

The Private Bank of Bank of America has appointed William Braddy III as market executive for the Tennessee/Arkansas market.

Mr Braddy will service wealthy individuals and families from offices in Nashville, Memphis and Chattanooga, as well as Little Rock and Rogers, Arkansas.

Mr Braddy, who will report to Private Bank Central Region president John Brennan, comes to Bank of America from First Citizens Bank in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he served as the Charlotte/Mecklenburg area executive.

The private bank of Bank of America has also appointed Larry Bell as market executive for Houston, Texas, reporting to south region president John Taylor.

In this role, Mr Bell will be responsible for leading the bank's efforts in delivering wealth management services and advice to wealthy individuals and families from offices in Houston and Galveston as well as New Orleans.

Mr Bell has spent most of his career at Bank of America; before joining the private bank in 1990, he served in various roles within the bank's credit policy group and was a commercial banking relationship manager for five years.

The private bank of Bank of America is part of Bank of America Global Wealth and Investment Management, with over 150 offices across the United States and nearly $172 billion in assets under management at 31 December 2006.

This move follows the opening of a Houston office of Family Wealth Advisors, part of the BoA private bank.

Senior wealth advisors David Creasey and Whitney Randolph will lead a team of bankers, wealth strategists and client service specialists

Chicago-base PrivateBancorp has announced that Thomas Meagher, a director of PrivateBancorp, since 1996, has chosen not to stand for re-election to the company's board of directors when his term expires in April 2007, which will reduce the board to 15 members.

Mr Meagher is chairman and chief executive officer of Professional Golf Cars of Florida, headquartered in Palm Beach, Florida.