Bank of America Merrill Lynch has started aggressive market penetration in Europe. Such decision can be made after announcement of BofA about hiring ten bankers to its European corporate banking business. A key moment in this announcement was that a large number of bankers were recruited from its rivals Royal Bank of Scotland and Citigroup. 

Among the newly recruited bank officers are Richard King, ex-head of RBS.’s global industrials group that joined Bank of America Merrill Lynch as head of U.K. and Ireland global corporate banking. Another veteran of RBS Hurbinder Mudan came to BofA as a head of new team helping energy and metals companies with their financing. In Royal Bank of Scotland Hurbinder Mudan was head of oil and gas structured finance. 

Rufus Beldam came to Bank of America Merrill Lynch after 26 years at Citigroup Inc. The new position of Beldam, who was seconded to the British treasury last year, is head of energy and power for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Among other employees who left RBS for Bank of America Merrill Lynch are Andrew Duncan, Deepak Rastogi, Krista Titmanis and Richard Digby. 

Hakim Karoui (ex-banker of Citigroup) was hired as a head of corporate banking for the Middle East and North Africa. Roman Zilber (Credit Agricole) joined the company as a senior banker in Moscow. Darryn Solomon from the Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation became a head of corporate banking in South Africa and will be based in Johannesburg. 

Earlier Bank of America Merrill Lynch has appointed Christian Meissner (ex-banker of Nomura) to the position of head of investment banking for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Adrian Mee from the same Nomura will come to Bank of America Merrill Lynch in December.