Royal Bank of Canada Wealth Management has recruited a team of three advisors from the US division of Israel-based Bank Leumi to beef up its international wealth operations.

Estrella Elbaz, Neer Horonov and Omri Amit will be based in New York City and report to Patrick Palfrey, complex manager of the bank’s international advisory group.

At Bank Leumi, the team managed assets of more than $680 million for wealthy clients in the Americas and Israel.

Elbaz worked for the Israeli bank for 14 years and covered Chile and Argentina; Omri worked for Leumi for four years in various roles, for example in the Israel business; and Neer joined the bank last year from Oppenheimer and his territory included Panama and Venezuela.

Last month, RBC entered a definitive agreement to sell its US regional retail banking operations to PNC Financial Services Group for about $3.6 billion, as it looks to refocus its US efforts on the wealth management and capital markets divisions.

In related news, the bank is also ramping up its international coverage of US clients. Last week RBC Wealth Management appointed Martin Heale as head of Americas for its UK division, and said it was planning to expand the number of US clients it served from the UK. RBC Wealth Management UK's investments business has held a licence with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for more than a decade. It is looking to serve this client base as a number of other players - most recently HSBC Private Bank - pull out over the regulatory burden.