By Clare Baldwin
NEW YORK, July 19 (Reuters) - U.S. Trust, a private banking unit of Bank of America Corp, is on a hiring spree after losing dozens of private bankers to rivals and seeing client assets decline.
A total of 24 hires are expected this week, according to a U.S. Trust spokeswoman, of which 10 will be on the West Coast.
On Monday the bank announced five new hires in some of Florida's wealthiest cities and another two are elsewhere on the U.S. East Coast.
Doug DiVirgilio, who runs U.S. Trust's business from Maryland to Florida, said in a telephone interview that he expects to continue hiring in Florida.
'Many high net worth families live in Florida and more are moving there,' DiVirgilio told Reuters. 'There's no income tax. We do expect Florida to outperform and it is a high-potential market for us, especially southeast Florida.'
He also expects to pursue new hires in the Washington DC area in coming months.
Banks are particularly focused on their divisions that cater to rich individuals, which rake in more money for the bank than divisions that target lower-value clients.
U.S. Trust, like other private banks and brokerages, is scrambling to recruit and retain bankers. It suffered a net loss of 25 private bankers during the second quarter, giving it a total of 2,163. Client assets under management fell 1.7 percent from a year earlier to $178 billion, despite the bounce back in financial markets.
MERRILL RIVALRY FEARED
The spate of hiring may help address questions about the health of U.S. Trust, which has posted mixed results in recent quarters and has lost 37 'client facing professionals' in the past year, according to its latest earnings release.
Last week, BofA said U.S. Trust's second-quarter profit more than doubled to $80 million from $36 million in the first quarter, though that was because lofty credit costs had fallen by more than half to $86 million.
The venerable private bank has lost a number of advisers and customers in recent years, starting with its sale to discount brokerage Charles Schwab Corp. By 2007 it was sold, again, to Bank of America for $3.3 billion.
Last year, though, Bank of America completed its financial crisis takeover Merrill Lynch, a brokerage focused on smaller investors but which also serves super-rich. Analysts question whether Merrill and U.S. Trust can both thrive without competing for the same pool of clients.
Bank of America global wealth management boss Sallie Krawcheck has said U.S. Trust is not for sale, and that the two businesses complement one another. Still the private bank has seen dozens of bankers and other executives head for rivals, including a highly aggressive Citigroup.
Among U.S. Trust's new Florida hires, Lawrence Greenberg, Nancy Golder and Bob Dunkin will be based in Palm Beach. Greenberg and Golder joined from Citi, while Dunkin joins from CathRob Holdings.
Jesse Perrin, formerly of JPMorgan, will be based in Boca Raton, while Kim Bleach of SunTrust joins the Sarasota office.
Elsewhere, U.S. Trust said it will hire Stephen Doty as its Northeast division investment executive and Rowland 'Chip' Bankes as the region's trading head. Doty was formerly at Bank of New York Mellon and Bankes was formerly at R.W. Pressprich.
(Reporting by Clare Baldwin; Editing by Steve Orlofsky, Tim Dobbyn and Matthew Lewis) Keywords: USTRUST/HIRES (clare.baldwin@thomsonreuters.com; + 1 646 223 6189; Reuters Messaging: clare.baldwin.reuters.com@reuters.net) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
NEW YORK, July 19 (Reuters) - U.S. Trust, a private banking unit of Bank of America Corp, is on a hiring spree after losing dozens of private bankers to rivals and seeing client assets decline.
A total of 24 hires are expected this week, according to a U.S. Trust spokeswoman, of which 10 will be on the West Coast.
On Monday the bank announced five new hires in some of Florida's wealthiest cities and another two are elsewhere on the U.S. East Coast.
Doug DiVirgilio, who runs U.S. Trust's business from Maryland to Florida, said in a telephone interview that he expects to continue hiring in Florida.
'Many high net worth families live in Florida and more are moving there,' DiVirgilio told Reuters. 'There's no income tax. We do expect Florida to outperform and it is a high-potential market for us, especially southeast Florida.'
He also expects to pursue new hires in the Washington DC area in coming months.
Banks are particularly focused on their divisions that cater to rich individuals, which rake in more money for the bank than divisions that target lower-value clients.
U.S. Trust, like other private banks and brokerages, is scrambling to recruit and retain bankers. It suffered a net loss of 25 private bankers during the second quarter, giving it a total of 2,163. Client assets under management fell 1.7 percent from a year earlier to $178 billion, despite the bounce back in financial markets.
MERRILL RIVALRY FEARED
The spate of hiring may help address questions about the health of U.S. Trust, which has posted mixed results in recent quarters and has lost 37 'client facing professionals' in the past year, according to its latest earnings release.
Last week, BofA said U.S. Trust's second-quarter profit more than doubled to $80 million from $36 million in the first quarter, though that was because lofty credit costs had fallen by more than half to $86 million.
The venerable private bank has lost a number of advisers and customers in recent years, starting with its sale to discount brokerage Charles Schwab Corp. By 2007 it was sold, again, to Bank of America for $3.3 billion.
Last year, though, Bank of America completed its financial crisis takeover Merrill Lynch, a brokerage focused on smaller investors but which also serves super-rich. Analysts question whether Merrill and U.S. Trust can both thrive without competing for the same pool of clients.
Bank of America global wealth management boss Sallie Krawcheck has said U.S. Trust is not for sale, and that the two businesses complement one another. Still the private bank has seen dozens of bankers and other executives head for rivals, including a highly aggressive Citigroup.
Among U.S. Trust's new Florida hires, Lawrence Greenberg, Nancy Golder and Bob Dunkin will be based in Palm Beach. Greenberg and Golder joined from Citi, while Dunkin joins from CathRob Holdings.
Jesse Perrin, formerly of JPMorgan, will be based in Boca Raton, while Kim Bleach of SunTrust joins the Sarasota office.
Elsewhere, U.S. Trust said it will hire Stephen Doty as its Northeast division investment executive and Rowland 'Chip' Bankes as the region's trading head. Doty was formerly at Bank of New York Mellon and Bankes was formerly at R.W. Pressprich.
(Reporting by Clare Baldwin; Editing by Steve Orlofsky, Tim Dobbyn and Matthew Lewis) Keywords: USTRUST/HIRES (clare.baldwin@thomsonreuters.com; + 1 646 223 6189; Reuters Messaging: clare.baldwin.reuters.com@reuters.net) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.