A senior managing director who has worked at Merrill Lynch for nearly eight years has resigned, WealthBriefingAsia can reveal.

A senior managing director in Bank of America Merrill Lynch's Asian wealth management division has resigned after nearly eight years with the bank, WealthBriefingAsia can reveal.

Gea Hong Tho, managing director and head of the Singapore and Malaysia wealth management teams, quit two weeks ago. She is believed to be rejoining her former colleague, Eng Huat Kong, who left the US bank in 2010.

The former head of Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Southeast Asia advisory division, Eng Huat Kong, resurfaced this February at EFG. He had worked at BoA Merrill for over 20 years. He took over the role of head of private banking in Singapore at EFG, which was vacated by Kees Stoute.

Albert Chiu, chief executive officer for Asia, at the time pointed to the Swiss bank’s “ambitious plans to grow our business in Asia,” highlighting a strategy to take the Singapore and Southeast Asian business to “the next stage of its development.”

It is not yet clear who will take on Gea Hong Tho’s responsibilities. Her duties may be absorbed by Ong Yeng Fang, who heads up the wealth management business in Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, after being hired from Julius Baer in 2010.

Sources say that recent reports that Bank of America Merrill Lynch is considering the sale of its non-US wealth management business, may trigger a “leakage” of top talent.

Today it was announced that the bank is ending its sponsorship partnership with research company Capgemini, after many years of collaborating on The World Wealth Report, raising further question marks over the future of the division.

A spokesperson said the decision came down to wanting to do more proprietary reports.