Merrill Lynch Wealth Management has named David Jervis to succeed Eva Castillo as head of Europe, Middle East and Africa when she leaves the role at the end of the year.

Mr Jervis, a 16-year veteran at Merrill Lynch, is currently head of Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s senior relationship management group for global banking and markets across EMEA.

Part of Mr Jervis’ current role is to develop partnerships between the wealth management and institutional businesses and so he has a valuable perspective of both operations, along with strong relationships across the EMEA region, the firm said in a statement.

Prior to this role Mr Jervis was head of institutional equity sales in Europe between 2002 and 2005.

“He [Mr Jervis] has more than 25 years of international leadership experience and working with our strong EMEA wealth management leadership team, will drive forward the business’s growth in key countries across the region,” said Sallie Krawcheck, president of global wealth and investment management for Bank of America.

As head of Merrill Lynch Wealth Management EMEA Mr Jervis will serve as a member of the firm’s EMEA executive committee, which is chaired by EMEA president Jonathan Moulds. Mr Jervis additionally sits on the boards of Merrill Lynch Capital Markets and Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated.

Ms Castillo’s decision to step down from her role as EMEA head was exclusively reported by WealthBriefing in October. It is understood that she decided to resign before Sallie Krawcheck was appointed head of Merrill’s global wealth management operations in early August this year. What Ms Castillo’s next move may be is as yet unknown.