Deutsche takes 12 from Merrill Lynch

Twelve senior bankers have left Merrill Lynch to join Deutsche Bank's institutional group, as Merrill's former CFO steps down.

Deutsche Bank has hired 12 senior Merrill Lynch employees to its global banking division in the same week that Nelson Chai stepped down as president of Bank of America's (BoA) Asia-Pacific operations. Chai was chief financial officer at Merrill Lynch until the BoA acquisition completed last month, but had yet to move to Asia to take up his new role. He will be replaced by Kim Hong, BoA's chief risk officer in the Asia-Pacific region.

The Deutsche Bank hires include brothers Eric Heaton, formerly treasurer at Merrill Lynch, David Heaton, formerly head of global asset management investment banking at Merrill Lynch, and Seth Heaton, formerly employed in the financial institutions group (FIG). They join as managing directors in New York. Richard Slimmon, a former senior banker in the European financial institutions investment banking group, becomes managing director in London, and Richard Gibb, former head of financial institutions in Asia-Pacific and Australia, joins as managing director in Hong Kong.

Venkat Badinehal and Jason Braunstein both join in New York, as managing director and director respectively. They formerly served in FIG Investment Banking at Merrill Lynch where they covered US depositary institutions.

The new hires will all report to Jorge Calderon, co-head of global corporate finance coverage and global head of the financial institutions group at Deutsche Bank.