Swiss-headquartered EFG International has appointed former senior Merrill Lynch manager Carlos Valle to be chief executive for the Caribbean.

Swiss-headquartered EFG International has appointed former senior Merrill Lynch manager Carlos Valle to be chief executive for the Caribbean, replacing Ludovic Chechin-Laurans, who moved to Switzerland last year to take charge of private banking in Geneva while also becoming deputy CEO of EFG Bank.

In this capacity, Chechin-Laurans continues to oversee the Caribbean business, and Valle will report to him.

Valle has held a variety of senior roles within Merrill Lynch, where he worked for over 20 years. Most recently he was managing director, global wealth management, in New York, and prior to that, he was managing director at the institutional advisory division.

He was latterly a visiting professor at the Darden School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia.

“The dynamic culture of EFG was a strong attraction for me, and the business is well positioned for continued profitable growth in the Caribbean,” Valle said.

There have been a number of changes at EFG International in recent months as the bank has pushed through with restructuring moves to boost profitability after a difficult period in recent years. In November, the deputy chief executive of EFG International, Lukas Ruflin, stood down from the role to take a long-planned sabbatical. His role was not replaced as part of a move to contain costs.

In October last year, EFG International completed the initial public offering of its structured investments subsidiary EFG Financial Products, cutting its stake in the firm from around 58 per cent to around 25 per cent.