Investec Specialist Private Bank, part of the UK and South African-listed bank Investec, has brought in Mercer, the consulting, outsourcing and investment services firm, to support its high net worth client proposition.

Mercer has been engaged to provide forward-looking research on managers to identify best in class investment products, Investec said in a statement. Specifically, the bank will utilise Mercer’s Global Investment Manager Database and its Manager Performance Analytics tool when selecting funds and constructing its clients’ portfolios.

"Our wealth management team focuses on creating customised global investment solutions for our individual clients. Mercer's resources will help us underpin these solutions with sound, expert research that seeks to challenge conventional banking ideas in constructing bespoke portfolios," Robert Gottlieb, Investec’s head of wealth management, said in a statement.

Mercer, for its part, said that going forwards it expects that private banks will increasingly look to refocus on their core strengths and so will turn more and more to outsourced providers for services such as investment research.

Mercer has made a string of senior appointments in recent months. Earlier this week Jelle Beenen was promoted as head of the firm’s investment consulting business in the Benelux markets, having led Mercer’s financial strategy group in the Netherlands since joining the firm in 2008.

Additionally, last month Bill Muysken was appointed chief investment officer for alternative alpha strategies and Will Oulton was named as the new European head of responsible investment within Mercer's investment consulting business.

Muysken rejoins the firm from the hedge fund industry, having recently been a portfolio manager for Thames River Capital’s multi-manager alternatives team, while Oulton was latterly director of responsible investment at the FTSE Group.