Analysis: Private Banks Battling for Advisers to Super-Rich

Recruiting wars in the genteel world of private banking are heating up, with bankers to the super-rich increasingly looking to retail brokerages and wealth management boutiques for new blood. A year after thousands of retail brokers left the largest brokerages to join rivals and independents, the job-hopping frenzy has shifted to private bankers catering to individuals with more than $10 million of investable wealth. Citigroup Inc C has been leading the charge since spinning off its Smith Barney retail brokerage last year to a venture controlled by Morgan Stanley MS. The embattled bank has recruited dozens of bankers and other executives this year, many from Bank of America Corp's BAC U.S. Trust. U.S. Trust embarked on its own hiring spree, adding nearly 40 advisers since July. Bank of New York Mellon BK, Wells Fargo & Co WFC and other banks have also been actively recruiting. Read the rest here.