Merrill Lynch, the private banking and investment subsidiary of Bank of America, has confirmed that it has lured a nine-strong team from UBS for its Manhattan, New York office.

The team, which includes Eric Bodner and Benjamin Sax, formerly managed approximately $2 billion in assets at UBS Private Wealth Management.

The Manhattan team’s defection to Merrill follows news in late January that RBC Wealth Management had bolstered its US operations with the addition of two former UBS teams to its offices in Minneapolis, Minnesota and Reno, Nevada.

In Minneapolis, RBC hired a $300 million-team led by Gary Petrucci from Piper Jaffray, which was taken over by UBS Wealth Management USA in 2006.  At around the same time a former UBS team managing $200 million in assets joined RBC’s Reno office.

Meanwhile, UBS has recently been engaged in a recruiting campaign in Texas, luring two multi-million-dollar teams in as many days from rivals, according to Bank Investment Consultant.

According to the publication, in mid-January a team of five joined UBS in Dallas from Goldman Sachs, where they had overseen combined assets of $4 billion.  UBS also recruited an 11-person team for its Houston private wealth management office from Morgan Stanley.