Merrill-owned private-bank strengthens currency advisory for U.S. northeast. First Republic -- a San Francisco-based private bank that Merrill Lynch acquired in 2007 and took, somewhat awkwardly, into its shot-gun merger with Bank of America early this year -- has hired former Royal Bank of Scotland executive John Riley help meet the foreign-exchange needs of its clients in New England and New York.

"John Riley is a senior foreign-exchange professional who shares First Republic's commitment to exceptional client service," says First Republic's president and COO Katherine August-deWilde. "John's experience as a foreign-exchange advisor further strengthens our team of bankers and wealth advisors in Boston."

Fifth wheel

Before he worked at Royal Bank of Scotland (via its Providence, R.I.-based subsidiary Citizens Bank) as a corporate-risk manager, Riley was a foreign-exchange advisor with Cleveland-based Key Bank. He has also worked at First Union (now part of Bank of America), Chase Manhattan (now part of JPMorgan Chase) and Barclays.

Boston-based Riley joins a growing foreign-exchange group that serves First Republic's business-side clients including middle-market companies, asset managers, professional-service firms, and non-profit institutions.

First Republic has been tipped for a possible sale since Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America said it would buy Merrill in September 2008. When Merrill completed its $1.8-billion cash-and-stock acquisition of First Republic about two years ago, it said it was buying it to increase its high-net-worth wallet share and to enhance its existing private-banking capabilities -- areas that Bank of America presumably has covered as a result of its $2.3-billion purchase, also in the summer of 2007, of U.S. Trust.

First Republic has been in Boston since 2006, when it bought First Signature Bank & Trust, formerly a subsidiary of Manulife's John Hancock Financial Services, in 2006. It opened a second office in Boston last fall.

First Republic has branches in and around San Francisco and in the Pacific Northwest, southern California, Nevada, New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts. -FWR

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