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From the Opalesque team:

Christian de Prati, managing director of Merrill Lynch Capital Markets AG, recently told Swiss daily paper Le Temps that the bank would benefit from the arrival of hedge funds in Switzerland. The planned expansion will also affect private banking.

The bank has around 400 employees dedicated to Switzerland – which is the second place in Europe for wealth management. But de Patri, 39, believes it is not enough. The bank’s expansion will be organic and may also include an acquisition.

The merger of BoA and Merrill Lynch makes it one of the biggest banks in the world, with around 300,000 employees (including 784 analysts) and $1.5 trillion under management. According to Reuters, it recently overtook UBS ($1.3tln) as the world's largest wealth manager following massive outflows from the Swiss bank's core wealth division. However, last week, BofA Merrill revealed a quarterly loss of $1bn on the back of large credit card losses.

Bank of America Corp. said Wednesday it was to sell First Republic Bank, a US-based private bank it inherited from Merrill Lynch & Co., to a group of investors for more than $1......................

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