Bruce Wasserstein, chairman and chief executive of Lazard, has been hospitalized for an irregular heartbeat; while his condition is serious, he is stable and recovering, the firm said in a statement.

Lazard is incorporated in Bermuda. Mr Wasserstein runs the firm from its offices in New York.

Mr Wasserstein, who has worked in Wall Street for more than three decades, rose to the top ranks of merger advisors during the 1980s.

Lazard has recently pushed into the wealth management sector. In June this year, Lazard announced it had hired Thaddeus Shelly to lead a new private wealth management subsidiary. A former senior manager at Bessemer Trust, he will initially focus on the firm’s private wealth management effort in the US.